Star Trek Voyager Learning Curve, A New Frontier
by Sithicus
Summary: Alain Desrochers is a man misplaced in time and space his belief that he would be going home has been dashed as he now finds himself on a familiar vessel traversing the Delta Quadrant, with help from her crew he may find his way back home. Then Again...
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes:** We now begin the next stop on the journey that is Alain Desrochers training regimen; for you readers just joining us fret not, you don't have to have read any of the Xena: Warrior Princess stories to understand what's going on, references may be made in the future, but they will most often involve lengthy explanation dialogue.  
If you aren't even familiar with my work; or I should say, don't know what I'm yammering on about, allow me to explain... This is Chapter Four; Sub-Chapter One in a grand novel I've created titled Chrysalis. It involves the exploits of one man; Alain Desrochers, who has been sent into the Omniverse for training in the mastery of a gift that was given to him by the God of his home reality. (If you think that's confusing don't worry; I wrote this and even I get confused at times.)  
If you're wondering why I even bothered to choose the Voyager series to set this in, well I have my reasons; and if you're a fanatical follower of the series then let me inform you that this story begins roughly three to four weeks before the Season Two Episode titled, **Lifesigns**.

As this is the first chapter I shall make the usual disclaimer message here; I make no claims to owning Star Trek Voyager or any of the characters from the Star Trek universe who may also be mentioned. Alain Desrochers is my property; as is any other Original Characters that may crop up through the course of this story. I believe that covers all my bases; I hope you Star Trek people will enjoy my story, and like I said don't worry if you've never read any of my previous Xena works, they aren't truly necessary to enjoy the series from this jumping on point.

Prologue

My mind raced at infinite speeds as I traveled through the vortex back home, my trials with Xena and Hercules graciously at an end; I looked forward to once again sleeping in my own bed, eating something other then what Gabrielle had served… That's when I felt the sudden gut wrenching cessation of my forward momentum; for at least about four point six seconds of real time. I found myself flying out of the conduit between realities and hurtling through the air in a room that somehow felt too large to be my own.  
I felt my body connecting with something hard and unyielding; I heard the distinct smacking sound of a human body colliding at impossible speeds with a metal wall, I felt intense pain as my head snapped upward and my arm twisted broken as it became pinned behind my back.  
I hung suspended for the briefest of instances after coming in contact with the cool metal surface; next I knew I was slumped upon the ground, which was also cool and metallic in origin my head swimming in and out of focus. _Terrific; another damn concussion, why do these landings always have to be so hard?  
_I heard a clatter to my left and forced my eyes to focus long enough to notice that my broadsword had slipped from its sheath and now lay bare inches from my broken left hand. _Thank God it wasn't the right; I do everything with my right hand, it's my way of life…  
_Voices swam about me as I slowly began to lose consciousness; I could tell that there would be a need to explain my sudden presence here, mainly because I knew I could not be in my own home, but then where was I?

"Get him to sickbay." I briefly heard a commanding female voice order before the darkness claimed me entirely; though not before I felt a strange tingling sensation all over my body.

**Space… Some would call it, the final frontier… I can't exactly argue the point with them; for indeed it is a grand place to explore.  
****These are the voyages of the Starship, Voyager. Her secondary mission; to seek out new life forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before… But her primary mission; is to find a way back home, to Earth…  
****These are my adventures aboard Voyager; the adventures of one man thrown into the Omniverse to meet his destiny head on, or die trying… My name is Alain Desrochers; and I am one man lost in the sea of space, time and realities… My primary mission is also to find my way home; however so far it hasn't worked out that way, welcome to the universe of…**

**Star Trek Voyager:  
****Learning Curve, A New Frontier**

An indeterminate amount of time later my eyes fluttered open to behold a strange sight indeed; and my body was devoid of all pain, despite how serious I knew those injuries had to be. Levering myself into a position that would afford me a better view from the plain ordinary looking ceiling of the room I was forced back down rather unceremoniously by a tall balding man in a strange looking green and black jumpsuit. He also wore a small stylized looking pin above his left breast; it was somewhat triangular in design, though not entirely.  
He didn't say a word merely began running a very small compact cylinder above my body; the small rectangular device in his other hand beeped and blipped and made any number of curious noises as he took what I presumed to be readings of my person.  
I sighed as I glanced to my left; the bed I was laying on was fairly comfortable and had a soft cushiony feel to it, there was one other in my immediate view and as I focused now on detecting the sounds I could hear a strange though lulling thrum constantly resonating about the room.  
I found it to be to quiet however; there were no sounds of natural habitats, no wildlife at all and a small part of my warrior skilled person couldn't help, but jump inwardly at the belief that any moment we would come under attack. A sudden movement startled me from my examination of the room and I reached out with finely honed reflexes grasping the slender arm of the woman who had approached my left side as silently as Xena might have. Her surprise was clear in her eyes; and yet there was no fear there only a deep curiosity and profound happiness I could not quite detect.  
She was no human woman and I wondered if perhaps she was a demi-god as Hercules was, but that thought quickly vanished from my mind for I was no longer in that reality. Her form was quite pleasing to the eye however; despite her odd manner of dress and hair style, for the most part she appeared human only her ears, which were pointed at the end and possessed strange additional folds of skin betrayed her un-earthly nature.

"Doctor shouldn't we inform the Captain that he's awake?" She asked in a soft and gentle tone.

"In due course." The balding man snapped his tone indicative that he was not truly angry with the woman for speaking, apparently it was the way he always spoke or so I gathered from the small smile on the woman's face. "I will see that this patient has fully recovered before he is interrogated by security." He added snapping the small device closed with a well practice flick of his wrist. "You were quite fortunate you didn't break your neck." He chastised moving aside and retrieving another strange looking device.

"Who?" I tried to ask only to find my voice catching on the extreme dryness of my throat; how long had I been out?

"My name is Kes." The pleasant young woman replied smiling bemusedly at the Doctor. "And this is the Doctor." She added as if the man's title was his name; surely he had to have a true name.

"The Captain has now been notified." He revealed holding the strange looking apparatus to my neck and depressing one end; there was a soft hissing sound and suddenly my mind began to feel clearer. "I have given you a light stimulant to ensure that you are fully aware for your meeting with the Captain; however I would insist that she let you get some rest, you did suffer a concussion after all and there may be unknown side-effects." This man was a very arrogant sounding man; my teeth ground with sudden anger at the hostility I was detecting in his tone; Kes seemed to sense my sudden distrust and gently took my hand squeezing it.

"Doctor." She scolded glancing up at the man. "You'll have to forgive him…His bedside manner hasn't been improved upon yet." She explained now looking back at me with a friendly stare; it was then that I noticed the sudden feeling of a cool breeze striking my upper thighs. I glanced down in sudden bafflement to discover that I was completely naked; every article of clothing had been removed.

"By the Gods; I'm indecent!" I exclaimed feeling it would be inappropriate to curse more colorfully as I had strongly desired; the Doctor returned from wherever he'd been and handed me a pile of clothes. Upon closer inspection they appeared to be my own; I quickly climbed to my feet and took them mindful of the fact that there was a lady present.

"Your clothing was permeated with a very odd energy that disrupted our equipment and prevented me from healing you." He explained haughtily as I hastened to cover my body. "If we hadn't stripped you, you wouldn't have been healed and you'd most likely be experiencing quite the agonizing pain at this moment." He added an indifferent expression upon his features. Kes noticed my blush and smiled warmly at me bowing her head slightly before she chose to speak up.

"Relax; I wasn't on duty when you arrived. Mister Paris was." She revealed.

"You still saw me just now." I pointed out eliciting a blush from her. "Well it doesn't matter; at least the Captain won't be inconvenienced by the Doctors indiscretion." I added with a low snarl as I finished placing my scabbard around my person; the sword was not present, but that didn't bother me too much. As I turned my back on both Kes and the Doctor examining my surroundings fully and marveling at the massive amount of technological sophistication I was seeing before me. I detected the telltale swishing sound of automatic doors almost silently opening and I turned to find both people adopting a more formal stance and assuming a straight back pose; apparently the Captain had arrived.

Captain Kathryn Janeway was many things, but she prided herself on her scientific knowledge; still she had never before encountered such a strange and yet beauteous phenomena as the one that brought the stranger to her ship. As she entered the sickbay with Tuvok and a small contingent of security officers she quickly donned a gentle smile.

"Well Doctor how's our wayward patient?" She asked taking care to keep her voice as non-aggressive as possible.

"Perfectly fine despite his hazardous arrival, I must insist that in the future you should use the transporters." The Doctor chastised in typical fashion as he moved aside from the biobed where the strange young man had just taken a seat; he smiled secretively so the EMH wouldn't catch it and shook his head briefly in bemusement.  
The Captain took this opportunity to examine him, he stood roughly five foot seven inches approximately as tall as herself; he appeared to be in his early twenties, was a physically impressive specimen for a man of his height with dark brown hair flowing past his shoulders and a fairly thick beard and mustache, which she remembered as having been very scruffy and dust ridden. The Doctor or Kes must have cleaned it up for him; his eyes were a startlingly bright blue and the strange combination of leather and what might have been buckskin outfit he wore left little to the imagination.  
One of her female security escort was actively sizing this man up with lustful eyes; Janeway chose to ignore it focusing more on the few light scars that pitted his arms. The maroon and dark brown ensemble was very ancient looking in retrospect as was the faded leather scabbard resting comfortably on his hip. She also noted that he was obviously disoriented; though doing his best not to fear these new surroundings, in fact he was beaming openly in a show of friendship, which left Janeway only briefly contemplating the nature of his sanity.

"Greetings; I am Captain Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager, and this is my chief of security Mister Tuvok." The shorter auburn haired woman in the red and black jumpsuit introduced as she indicated the gold and black clad dark skinned gentleman with the very clean cut hair style and pointed tipped ears. I chose to acknowledge her words with a polite nod and took the opportunity to observe the others; most of them wore similar uniforms to Tuvok; who as I drew slightly closer stiffened up noticeably and reached for an odd contraption attached to his hip.  
He was noticeably taller than me; however the Captain and I were roughly eye level, she continued to smile as I took in these new beings startled when I caught sight of a blue skinned bald man standing amongst the relatively human group. I smiled openly at the woman who was eyeing me lustfully and she hastily averted her eyes resuming her stoic expression; everything about this new place was causing a nagging sensation in the back of my mind as if I should know it.

"I feel I should already know you Captain." I admitted addressing the woman for the first time; her face adopted a curious expression at that and turned to Tuvok.

"The universal translator had to decode that." She exclaimed; Tuvok quirked an eyebrow and seemed to nod.

"Highly perceptive of you Captain; he has been speaking a very ancient form of Earth language, I believe it was commonly employed in Greece." He explained; I shook my head once more something felt as if all of this was familiar and I switched now into English.

"Sorry; I forgot." I muttered. "My name is Alain Desrochers; and though you may not believe me, I come from an alternate reality." I revealed startled that these men and women seemed to take my words at face value.

"We already guessed that." The Captain returned with a genuine smile. "The question then is where do you come from and how did you get here?" She asked.

"I couldn't begin to tell you; one moment I was back home in my bedroom reading a book, it was the Earth year two thousand and three, September tenth… The next I found myself dragged off into another universe; an ancient one where I could neither communicate with the locals nor defend myself…" I paused a small wistful smile crossing my features for the barest of moments at the remembrance of home. "If not for my encountering of two very understanding and helpful people I might have been killed in that dangerous time. I had expected to be arriving at home when I was brought here." I admitted glancing back up to the Captain at last.

"Fascinating." Tuvok observed in typical fashion; now my memories had finally placed my current location and I fought to keep both the shock and joy from my features. "Then you do not control the vortex?"

"I am a mere mortal; it is beyond my capability." I returned with a nod of affirmation.

"In that case I believe you are stuck here aboard my vessel; considering the portal you came through closed up immediately upon your arrival." The Captain revealed with a small sigh; she quickly smiled once more recovering from her brief slip up and she approached me grasping my shoulder in a show of sympathy.  
"I'll have Mister Tuvok escort you to guest quarters; you'll also need some help in learning how everything works so I believe I'll get B'Elanna Torres my chief engineer to lend a hand in that department." She continued moving off towards the location of the doors; I smiled gratefully at the Captain and bowed my head in a formal show of respect.

"Thank you Captain; I shall endeavor to be of assistance in whatever fashion I can…"I trailed off as she turned back to me one last time and shot me another smile; afterwards she strode from the sickbay and the security detachment was quick to follow leaving me staring at a closed door. "Everyone seems to have taken my words for truth and doesn't seem to mistrust me." I observed turning to the Vulcan science officer with a smile.

"Indeed; please retrieve your final possession and follow me." He requested as he headed towards the exit; Kes quickly dashed up to my side startling me once again. She proved to be a hairs breadth shorter then me; she also happened to be cradling my blade in both hands mindful of its edge. I took the proffered item graciously and gallantly planted a kiss on the back of her hand.

"Thank you milady for your care of my most prized possession." I intoned graciously before slipping the broadsword back into its sheath and rushing to catch up with Tuvok.  
He silently led the way through the relatively plain looking corridor until we reached a section with markings on it; these markings seemed to indicate a turbo lift, since the next instant the doors whooshed open and I found myself looking into a relatively tiny circular room.  
Tuvok stepped in and waited patiently for me; I took a tentative step inside and wondered just what the slag this was going to feel like, would it be similar to a smooth elevator ride or something more akin to the feelings of a crazed roller coaster ride? My answer came after Tuvok told the computer what deck to take us to; my heart felt as if it had dived into my throat to get away from the sudden volcanic churning of my stomach and I was afraid I was going to get sick.

"Young man." Tuvok stated about three or four seconds later after the ride came to a complete stop; I opened my eyes to discover much to my surprise that somehow I had actually managed to find hand holds on the ceiling of the turbo lift and was clutching to it. It must have happened during that brief feeling of total weightlessness; I surmised… a young woman in a blue and black jumpsuit was standing in front of the entrance staring up at me with both incredulousness and amusement. With a sheepish smile directed towards Tuvok I landed lightly back to the ground and dusted myself off in a nonchalant manner typical of Autolycus.

"Sorry; that was a hell of a lot faster then the elevators we've got back home, I suppose it'll take a tad getting used to." I explained stepping out of the turbo lift on slightly shaky legs as Tuvok strode carefully down the corridor as if this sort of thing happened every day.

"Indeed." He remarked as I managed to catch up with him; at six foot three inches I was hard pressed to keep up with his long graceful strides. After a few short turns Tuvok halted in front of another section of wall that looked identical to all the other doorways I'd seen littering these seemingly endless hallways. He keyed in some kind of access code too fast for me to follow and the doors whisked open revealing a fairly spacious looking set of living quarters.  
"These are the guest quarters; we reserve them for visiting dignitaries, however the Captain has placed you here because she felt it would not do to have you interacting with the crew. Especially until we are absolutely certain you mean no harm." He explained in a straight forward manner; I wasn't paying too much attention to him my eyes were drawn to the windows and the vast array of stellar bodies whizzing past us at Warp speeds. Tuvok bade me farewell though I failed to hear him and I examined in turn the rest of the quarters; there was a relatively large desk situated near the replicator console and an elegant though low to the ground spherical table and high backed couch near the center of the room closest to the small dining table and chairs. The bed was located in a sort of combination alcove/room that was to the left of the entrance and another doorway led into the refresher where I got my first glimpse of not only the sonic shower, but a large tub that reminded me of the one used by Mister Neelix in Caretaker and what I could only surmise to be a twenty-fourth century toilet. A small counter with a sink was attached to the wall near the right of the entrance into the refresher and a nice oval sized mirror rested in the wall; though slightly raised.

"Intrepid-class, U.S.S Voyager NCC-Seven Four Six Five Six." I whispered quoting from memories I didn't even know I'd had; I smiled openly as I lightly traced my hand over the smooth straight back metallic surface of the chair seated beside the desk. "A far cry up from the land of ancient Gods, Warlords and Kings." I added with a light chuckle before I began to experience a very familiar sensation in my loins; ah yes nature was calling.  
Entering the refresher I moved over to what I perceived to be the toilet; always glossed over in the shows and movies this piece of technology, unlike a replicator or transporter was unfamiliar territory for me… This was definitely not a good time to try and figure out how things worked without so much as a manual; perhaps the computer data base could inform me as to the proper means of using this questionably designed apparatus.  
"Computer…" I called out hesitantly.

"Acknowledged; unknown vocal pattern, please state your name and rank or security will be alerted to intruder aboard." The computer ordered in its' soothing feminine tone; surprisingly it didn't sound as much like Majel Barrett as you might think, it was a little less grandiose though for some strange reason it did sound a little sultry, for a computer.

"Alain Desrochers; er, current rank Guest aboard USS Voyager." I offered figuring that it was one of those friendly access computers who would understand that I was no intruder.

"New voice pattern recognized; please state your request Guest Alain Desrochers." It stated sounding far too cheerful for a blasted computer.

"How do I use this; uh, refresher?" I asked uncertain as to what the actual name for the toilet might be; after all I hardly thought they'd still call it a toilet, but refresher struck me as being the name of the room and not the item in question.

"Unable to reply; insufficient information." The computer returned in the exact same tone and mannerisms as before; this resulted in eliciting a snarl from me as I began to feel my cheeks going slightly hot with embarrassed rage.

"How does one utilize this piece of slag suckin' trash one commonly calls a toilet." I growled my anger stemming from my incomprehensibility and slight resentment that I even needed help in figuring out how to use one of the most common advances of modern society.

"Unable to comprehend request; please rephrase the question." She stated driving me further to the brink; if this piece of junk wasn't careful it'd receive a nasty shock from a four quarter inch blade being shoved into its' mainframe.

"Hello, is someone here?" A stranger called from the next room, I decided to hold it in for a few minutes longer and see to this decidedly unwanted guest; now was not the time to be entertaining every curious crewmember. Standing in the doorway was a person I was both familiar and not familiar with; its one thing to see him on T-V it's an entirely different experience meeting the man in person. The odd style of clothing was as flamboyant as you would expect; coupled with his unusual skin markings and the whiskers sticking out on both sides of his jawbone area, as well as his strangely shaped ears I must say that meeting Mister Neelix up close was very surprising.  
Especially since he was slightly taller then me; though by no more than a hairs breadth I'd wager. "Why hello there, my name is Neelix. Since you're new here I thought I'd introduce myself and perhaps help our Lieutenant Torres in tutoring you on the basics of twenty-fourth century living." He offered boldly stepping forward and grasping my hand before I could say or do anything else; he shook it vigorously and I nearly lost my hold on my bladder when he slapped me on the back.

"News travels fast." I observed gritting my teeth and flashing a fake smile.

"Well actually Kes and I are close friends; so to speak and she thought as the ships' morale officer I might be needed." He admitted that jovial smile never once leaving his face. "And she also felt that Torres alone would prove… Well shall we say rather daunting?"

"I suppose so." I muttered too low for him to hear. "But your arrival is most fortuitous; I'm afraid Mister Tuvok left before I could enquire as to a much needed living expense, so to speak." I revealed feeling less foolish speaking to the Talaxian about my particular problem; after all I felt he could be counted on to be far more discreet on the matter then if I'd waited around for Torres. "You see it's about the… Um, refresher." I added turning my head to regard the bathroom; I trailed off as a knowing smile crossed his features and he chuckled a little to help ease my nervousness, grasping me by the shoulder he gently led us both into the refresher to begin my first quick lesson.

"Relax Mister…Oh I'm sorry Kes didn't give me your name." He suddenly realized.

"Call me Al." I requested with a sheepish smile.

"Well then Mister Al; I had some trouble too when I first came aboard, these Humans' don't exactly build in how too manuals for these sorts of things after all." He continued as he moved over to the refresher and quickly though carefully showed me exactly how to expunge the waste products when I was finished to which I was eternally grateful.

To Be Continued: **And so it begins; the next exciting chapter in the adventures featuring my own character Alain Desrochers, this chapter is quite long I trust and also serves as the perfect jumping on point. Alain will get to meet B'Elanna in the next chapter and his first true lessons shall begin; I suppose I could have just kept going, but we don't want chapters to be too long and it might get a tad boring reading all the customary introduction/exposition stuff in one mondo sized chapter.  
Feel free to Read and Review if you please; and I trust you'll find this part of the story that is Chrysalis quite more interesting then my Xena works. (If you've read them, but take heart, you don't have to have in order to understand what's going on.)**


	2. Chapter Two: Mess Hall Encounters

**Author's Notes:** Actually Agent-G I only put up the titles of the episodes in case anybody's interested; and I have to flip through my handy dandy Star Trek Voyager Companion book so I can get the episode title right. That book details alot about the series in certain respects and was quite an interesting read; also quite useful for guys like me.  
I suppose that just means that unless you religiously follow the series you won't recognize any of the scenes from the episodes that my character takes part in; and unlike my Xena stories I did try to spice things up a little more with his interactions this time around, since he's retained all of his knoweldge though he might occasionaly just interact in simple ways. Anyway I think I've yammered on enough; and I'm glad you liked the first chapter, it was most fun to work on and I agree, people hardly ever touch on the subtle nuances like the fact that any character from **our** world who winds up in **theirs** never seems to have problems with technology we've never physically seen, like toilets.

* * *

Tuvok returned to the bridge in the middle of a heated conversation between Mister Paris and Ensign Kim; the two appeared to be discussing the new arrival, Tuvok attempted to resume his shift without paying the slightest bit attention to the conversation, but on some small level he was partially interested to gain insight on their thoughts on the matter.

"He isn't some kind of barbarian Tom; just because he carries a sword doesn't make him that." Kim was saying, Tom snorted in disagreement and turned to face the younger Asian man.

"Come on Harry, you saw the state he was in when he got here." Tom retorted; suddenly looking over to Tuvok and shooting the Vulcan with a wolfish smile. "Ah Tuvok; you were with him the longest, tell Harry I'm right."

"I am afraid Ensign Kim is correct in this instant; the young man exhibits certain curious behavior, but he also appears to possess good manners and a high sense of honor and chivalry." Tuvok returned in his usual logical fashion, Tom regarded Tuvok incredulously before returning to his post.

"Captain Janeway?" A strange male voice suddenly called out over her com badge; she stirred slightly from her silent position in the center seat and quirked an eyebrow curiously at Chakotay who shot her a mysterious look.

"Yes." She spoke hesitantly; the voice wasn't very familiar.

"Forgive the interruption Captain; Mister Neelix is here in my new quarters and he wanted to replicate me a new outfit…You know before I met Torres; anyway I thought I should ask you first seeing as how I'm not an official crewmember so I don't have any rations." The voice explained; comprehension dawned in her eyes and she smiled shaking her head slightly in bemusement.

"Go right ahead Mister Desrochers." The Captain returned with a grin; a slight exclamation could barely be made out as Neelix expressed his excitement and began to replicate something.

"Er, hold on there Neelix; I'd like to pick out the outfit if it's all the same with you." Al hastily exclaimed before his communication line went dead.

* * *

Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres growled as she left the turbo lift and headed for the guest quarters, as the chief engineer she had better things to do then tutor some refugee from God knew where. As she arrived at the door she heard two male voices, one belonged to Neelix the other she didn't recognize; it was a pleasant enough sounding baritone not too deep, but strongly indicative of a male.  
She barged in without sounding the chime and nearly turned right back around in her shock; the stranger was in the middle of getting dressed. He was already wearing an odd pair of pants; they were dark blue in color and had a strange pattern, if memory served they were Blue Jeans. His shirt however was still being replicated so she was privy to his fully toned abdomen, chest and arms she was hard pressed not to look; it wasn't easy something about the man seemed to radiate a strong allure.

"Hello B'Elanna." Neelix greeted cheerfully as he passed the shirt to the stranger. "This is Mister Desrochers." He introduced horribly mispronouncing the French sounding name; B'Elanna regarded him once more eyeing him up and down, he was well built at least so she could take out some of her frustrations at having to tutor him. Which brought a wicked smile to her lips for the barest of moments; it was then she noticed that his dark brown hair looked as if someone had sheared it; he must have had Neelix cut it.  
As she watched him finish getting dressed she was startled when he slipped the ancient leather scabbard onto his person and re-sheathed the wicked looking broadsword.

"What are you doing?" She demanded of Neelix covering her shock as she stomped over to the Talaxian chef. "He isn't a member of this crew and hasn't been issued replicator rations yet." She added as the man pinned a com badge to his left breast.

"Actually the Captain has granted him permission." Neelix returned never once losing his jovial smile. B'Elanna took a step back and let out a sigh; Neelix took the opportunity to bid the man farewell, he nodded in thanks and turned silently to regard her.

I examined Lieutenant Torres appraisingly; sizing up the half Klingon in case she proved difficult, she was I'd guess five foot six and her bridge rows; if that's what they're called, weren't as pronounced as a full Klingons'. She wore her hair the same way as her television show counterpart; straight and framing her face, her skin tone made it harder to identify her human half, though I'm guessing she's of Mexican or Spanish descent at least somewhere down the line. She might be considered attractive to some especially in that black and gold jumpsuit, but I wasn't too partial to her looks; even though her dark hair color complimented her face and her lips looked cute pursed as they were.  
The fire in her eyes belied any sense of compassion; though she must possess some, and I'd always been partial to Kes, Seven or even Troi physically speaking.

"Well I suppose I have to start somewhere." She muttered crossing her arms over her chest and eyeing me ruefully; I tried hard not to smile at her and assumed a straight backed posture, standing to attention so to speak. I found myself smiling involuntarily at the expression on the woman's face and she glared at me. "What's so funny?" She demanded.

"Nothing Ms. Torres." I replied in a child-like tone; I couldn't help myself it was as if I was ten again and she was my disapproving teacher.

"Watch it smart mouth." She snapped marching straight up to me surprising the both of us when she found out how close we were in height. "Where to start?" She wondered out loud speaking more to herself then me.

"One usually starts with the basics Ms. Torres." I replied knowing full well she hadn't been asking me, but I just couldn't help myself it was so much fun to tease. She glared at me, but did little else for a few moments obviously mulling over my words; and then a large feral grin broke across her features and I involuntarily shuddered.

"All right mister; basics it will be, follow me." She ordered turning sharply and leaving my quarters; I followed after her feeling very, very uneasy about the whole thing.

"Way to go Al." I muttered to myself as we headed for the nearest turbo lift; oh joy another chance to experience the greatest thrill ride of the twenty-fourth century.

* * *

A couple of days later I limped into sickbay mentally kicking myself for the three thousandth time for getting B'Elanna in such a mood; I hadn't been put through this kind of workout since I first started training with Xena. Kes and the Doctor glanced up from his office; they appeared to have been in the middle of a conversation, or perhaps nearing the end of it judging by the silent look of contemplation I'd caught on the Doctors' face before my arrival caused him to snap back into his regular personality.

"Mister Desrochers; what is it this time?" He wondered picking up a tricorder and sidestepping around Kes to begin scanning.

"I had no idea there were so many martial arts employed by the Federation." I moaned moving to take a seat on one of the free biobeds.

"B'Elanna is teaching you martial arts?" Kes wondered ignoring the clucking sound the Doc was making with his tongue.

"Sort of; she really didn't think I'd learn anything without some kind of physical aspect to it…"I paused letting out a chuckle as the Doc picked up an osteoporosis stimulator and began to run it along my leg. "She already covered the basics pretty much; replicators, turbo lifts, transporters… Now she's got me flying shuttles; defending myself against her and any number of other opponents as well as learning the basics surrounding stars and planets." I elaborated with a slight sigh as the pain lessened; Kes smiled at my remarks and the Doctor clucked his tongue yet again.

"I think I should have a word with her; these constant trips to my medical bay are interfering with real work." He muttered; I shrugged and turned my head slightly eyeing the Vidiian woman Danara Pel who was lying over in the operating section of sickbay.  
"It wasn't a very large break; however in the future you shouldn't walk if you've broken your leg." He informed haughtily replacing the stimulator where he'd taken it from and moving over to Pel the look in his eyes showing that he was eager to get back to helping the Vidiian.

"I suppose this means I'm free to go." I guessed glancing to Kes; she grinned at me and nodded as she moved to join the doctor, I however became curious I hadn't had the chance to interact with the crew too much yet and I was most interested in seeing how details of what I remembered from the episodes differed in reality. So I silently moved closer to the corner so I wouldn't be too noticeable and prepared to observe this particular instant; the Doctor activated the Pel hologram and began his task after greeting her in typical Doctor fashion.

"I'm going to try stimulating your motor neurons." The Doc spoke up shortly after he started working; the gizmos' in his hand made a strange low whining sound and he seemed pleased though I couldn't tell since I was in a rather disadvantageous spot when it concerned seeing his facial features. "Well the nucleus cuneus appears to be functioning normally." He added in a pleased sounding tone as he moved closer to Pel's holographic form, which was standing to the left of her body and watching everything in eager joy. Or perhaps it was eager curiosity; I really couldn't say because I only saw one side of her face; they didn't seem to mind me still being here, if they even noticed me.  
"And now for the anterior thalamus pathway." He continued manipulating his tools yet again; suddenly I began to feel quite nervous and guilty for acting as if this were just another Star Trek episode, here I was standing in sickbay and watching a very personal scene play out for both the Doctor; Pel and to a lesser extent even Kes. I shouldn't be acting all eavesdroppy; or what not, _and yes I am aware that's not a word._

"Say; ah Kes, before I go I was meaning to ask something." I called out interrupting the scene playing out before me; Kes glanced up startled as I came into view.

"Yes?" She asked; I rubbed the back of my neck a little in nervous tension because now I just felt conspicuous.

"Er; aside from B'Elanna I really haven't spent much time with anyone else on the crew, you don't think I could… Er that is to say, perhaps you could… What I mean is…" I was fumbling over the words now and glancing at the floor as I slowly backed up towards the entrance; exit to sickbay. Kes seemed to understand and she shot me a warm smile as the Doctor eyed me like I was some kind of amoeba or something.

"Of course; meet me in the mess hall when I finish here and we'll start you up in getting to know people better." She stated with another warm smile; I nodded thankfully and whirled quickly striding confidently through the doors.

"Now where was I before I was so rudely interrupted?" I heard the Doc muttering. "Ah yes; the anterior thalamus pathway." He repeated reactivating his tools; the doors shut and I took a deep breath before making my way towards the nearest turbo lift, I decided right then and there that I would avoid any further observations of scenes I knew from episodes unless I happened to be present at the time. No sense in looking for them; I mean it wasn't too hard to be in the mess hall or… _Wait a minute; Doctor Pel was here, that would mean…_

"Oh well isn't that just prime; I showed up before the events of Deadlock, that's going to be fun to live out." I muttered recalling the certain event in that episode I knew would be very bad for me to be a part of; so to speak, I really didn't want to be cloned or something.

* * *

Kes met me in the mess hall as she said she would; Neelix saw us together and got a funny look on his face, but when Kes motioned Ensign Kim; Ensign Wildman and Ensign Bristow to join us he seemed to change his mind fairly quick. Kim eyed me curiously; he'd never actually met me yet however he had seen me, but I didn't know that and it was before my cleaning up and new wardrobe.

"So Kes said you asked her for some help in approaching us." He remarked with a chuckle; I let out a tiny sigh and smiled openly.

"Correction; I requested her help in getting to know some of the crewmen." I returned in an amused tone. "It sort of hit me that I could be stuck aboard this ship for a very long time; and it wouldn't do to keep to myself, I'm pretty much over my loner lifestyle these days." I added with a slight grin; Kim returned my grin with a broad smile as he picked up a cup and took a sip from it; Bristow kept a stoic expression on his face and Wildman also smiled.

"I chose these three because I felt you'd be uncomfortable getting to know the Captain or some of the more imposing and higher ranked staff." Kes explained with a smile of her own.

"And I'll have to thank Kes for that; it's nice to see someone new for a change we've been on this ship together for a while now and we all pretty much know everybody to some degree or another." Wildman revealed eyeing me with open curiosity; Bristow shrugged slightly in a nod agreeing with what she said though not openly speaking. "So; what's your universe like?" She asked leaning forward a little before she thought better of it due mostly to her ballooning abdomen; she would definitely be having that baby soon.

"Well there's not much to tell really; it's your basic early twenty-first century Earth, we've got major pollution problems, terrorists, poverty in third world countries, cancer, aids and a host of other diseases…" I trailed off with a slight sigh and a shrug. "Like I said pretty basic."

"You must feel pretty lucky to be here then." Bristow piped up startling me with how deep his voice sounded; Kes had introduced him by name of course, which is how I knew it, but I didn't have any memories of him from the show at the moment.

"Yeah right." I returned with a sarcastic tone. "Real lucky; I have no idea who sent me here or why and if it's anything like the last place I was dropped off at… Well lets' just say the only thing I'm thankful for, for being aboard Voyager at this moment is that at least I'm with people who can help me get acquainted with the subtle nuances of this universe." I finished with a deep sigh; I seemed to do that a lot more so now then back home, but I really could care less if I seemed like a big moper or something. Kim nodded a little and shot me a sympathetic smile.

"I know how that feels; I've had a bit of experience with alternate realities." He revealed once more taking a sip of his drink.

"Well at least this one is a far cry safer in my book then my last stop over." I admitted with a chuckle. "If you ever find yourself stuck in ancient Greece when they worshipped the Gods of mount Olympus I can certainly point you in the right direction to who you should get acquainted with." I added with a small wistful sigh.

"That's where you were?" Wildman wondered in surprise.

"Yep; how else do you think I got this lovely little keepsake?" I asked holding up the broadsword so they could get a better look at it. "Not exactly standard accoutrements in the early twenty-first century." I added with another chuckle.

"That's a real sword?" Bristow exclaimed reaching out hesitantly as if to touch it.

"Of course." I returned in that, what do you take me for, tone of voice.

"And you've used it?" Wildman wondered moving a bit farther from me in sudden trepidation.

"Mostly for self defense; when dealing with angry Warlords or armies who happen to be working for Ares the Greek God of War you tend to be targeted a lot more, especially when traveling with Ares' favorite former heiress." I replied with an indifferent shrug; Kim choked on his drink and Bristow had to slap his back a few times in order to get him calmed down.

"The Gods were real?" He demanded incredulously.

"In that particular reality they were; that Universe I knew from my universe as being nothing more then a television show." I explained with a small smile. "I suppose my universe had a window into their universe or something, which is how we have this highly accurate series featuring the two main heroes I happened to encounter." I elaborated.

"So this universe was nothing more then a T-V show to you." Kim repeated needing to clarify my remarks; I nodded and he seemed to accept it. "They told me at the academy not to try and figure out alternate realities." He muttered with a grin; Kes smiled and climbed to her feet.

"Well I'd better return to sickbay; I hope you learn something from each other." She stated bidding us farewell; I smiled at Kes and winked.

"I think they'll get the better end of that bargain." I returned with a hearty laugh; Wildman stirred a little so she could be more comfortable and glanced after Kes before turning back to us.

"So how's B'Elanna been treating you?" She asked attempting to change the topic of conversation.

"Tough, but fair." I returned with a grin. "Though of course it has been a little painful." I added with a slight wince of remembered pain.

"Really? Are you sure the Captain agreed to that?" She wondered sounding genuinely concerned.

"Relax; nothing she could do could equal what I went through under Xena." I countered with a good natured chuckle and a wave of dismissal. Kim and Bristow joined in with their own laughter; yet Wildman frowned at my easy dismissal of the situation and adopted a thoughtful expression.

"Maybe I could talk to the Captain." She mused; I shook my head so fast it could have caused whiplash, she eyed me inquisitively.

"Don't do anything on my part; it's nothing I can't handle." I informed knowing that I sounded a little arrogant, but I wasn't a weak willed human any more; life in Xena's world had toughened me up and showed me the consequences of power. Bristow shook his head before he suddenly realized what time it was; climbing to his feet he reached out a hand, I grasped it and shook it.

"A pleasure to meet you Mister Desrochers; however it's my duty shift in another twenty minutes so I'd better get going." He stated; I nodded in understanding and smiled as well.

"Nice to meet you too Ensign; I hope we can talk some more later on." I returned; Bristow nodded and took his leave passing Neelix who was wandering about the mess hall talking with the crew and actually cheering them up, he sure deserved that Ship's Morale Officer post. With that I turned back to Kim and Wildman and resumed our conversation; hopefully I'd hit it off with some of these people I'd hate to be stuck here for the rest of Voyagers' trip through the Delta Quadrant without any friends or anything to do.

To Be Continued: **Oi; my bad, instead of three weeks I meant roughly four days prior to the beginning of the episode Lifesigns, but I suppose that wouldn't help anyone any way. That's not important; this puppy is rolling along and coming off to a nice start if I do say so myself, still a tad difficult knowing where to cut off for the chapter process, but I'll manage.  
In the next exciting chapter things get a little confusing for our intrepid hero; not to mention he's going to have quite some fun getting to know certain specific crewmembers over the course of his stay here. For those interested he'll be sticking it out all the way through the events of the next five seasons of the show. So Agent-G don't feel too bad about him not getting to know Seven just yet, because he'll get to know her eventually; not to mention enjoy a host of adventures that take place outside the episodes I chose to incorporate into this story.  
Fair warning people; I tend to skip over a lot of episodes adding onlywhat I consider cruicial or key moments in Voyagers' travels, if not we'd be here for a very, very long time. Especially considering just how many episodes there are between Lifesigns where he first shows up and the series finale. I suppose mentioning the titles doesn't really help... Er anyway this is supposed to be a teaser for the next chapter so...  
Be here next time when our intrepid hero learns more about the Twenty-Fourth century in a very rude fashion as, if I'm not very much mistaken; we'll be having Fun with Kazons' 101.**


	3. Chapter Three: Basics, Part One

**Author's Notes:** Well Agent-G the sword did wind up belonging to him at the end of God of Chaos; and he's keeping it because although he doesn't remember the particular outcome of that story just now, he knows his sword will be important someday. Besides; would you get rid of a sword forged by the God Hepheastus?  
His last name is pronounced Des As in Day, Roch As in Rush and Ers As in Est; at least that's how I've always pronounced it... I've never really thought about it before truthfully, considering I took my own name for this story and I've never had to break it down before.  
Unfortunately Bristow is a character from the show I know next to nothing about; he was one of those secondary type characters that may have been mentioned, possibly seen once and then never heard of again; I got his name out of Star Trek Voyager Companion. It has a complete crew compliment, including who didn't make it and who eventually chose to leave the ship; like Neelix and those Borg children Seven addopted at one point. I wouldn't worry too much about him anyway; I just threw his name in there for another character Al could meet, he's really only going to make friends with Samantha Wildman, her daughter Naomi Wildman and two other female crewmembers who are actually introduced in this chapter. You may remember their constant appearences from certain episodes where Tom and Harry would discuss them, but you never actually saw them; the Delaney sisters.  
My original dragt did happen to include a friendship with Bristow, but I never really fleshed it out too much once I got it into my head to create scenes with the Delaney's and Wildman; it was more fun to write Al being a friend to the women more then the men, because... Well his personality just flows that way, plus it creates fun scenes later on when they've gotten to know each other better.  
**Anyway**, I think I've yammered on enough; and I'm updating twice in one day because I totally feel like it and I'll probably be too busy tomorrow to do it like I wanted to.

* * *

I felt the ship shaking like mad and fell out of bed; and that really didn't do wonders for my bruised and aching muscles, reaching out to steady myself I grasped the hilt of my blade. A jolt passed through my entire being; I felt as if a piece of me was merging back with the whole, apparently my duplicate had been drawn back into phase with me.

"Well; at least I don't have to worry about any stupid Vidiians snaggin' my organs, so to speak, thanks Hephaestus." I muttered stumbling back to my feet and making my way out of my room. The corridors were slightly darker in the red alert status; and I had a hard time getting my bearings at first. "My best option would be either sickbay or engineering." I mused; curious that everything would be duplicated, yet strangely enough memories not my own informed me that my sword had not been duplicated.  
"Ok; that's going to take some getting used to." I grumbled taking my leave of the corridor and rushing down its' shaking length to the turbo lift. "Ah… Engineering." I requested; in a flash the turbo lift engaged, now so long as nothing big happened to me.

* * *

"All right Captain; all of the ships' command functions have been re-routed to main engineering." B'Elanna called from her position; I rubbed my temple slightly as I passed into engineering, this double mind was giving me a headache.

"Welcome to the new bridge; now lets' see about." The Captain began only to be cut off by a loud shrill whistling sound; I cringed at that, but did my best to ignore it. "What's that?"

"I don't know; it's some kind of com emissions coming from all sub-space bands." B'Elanna replied as the captain approached her; I started walking towards them, but froze part way as a particular painful throbbing began to strike my temple.

"Coming from where?" Janeway asked.

"Good question; I can't tell." B'Elanna replied briefly examining her station. "But it's got a Federation signature." She added.

"Try recalibrating our frequency carrier to match it." The Captain ordered; by now the pain completely subsided and I no longer felt like a dual mind, the merger was officially complete.

"Thank Primus." I muttered making my way to the Captain and B'Elanna; though what purpose I hoped to serve was lost to me at the moment.

"That's the emergency code." Janeway observed. "Run it through an alpha numeric sequencer." She ordered; boy that was kind of fast, then again I wasn't jumping from one Voyager to the next like on T-V.

"Mister Desrochers; you should not be here." Tuvok observed as he noticed my hovering presence near the Captain's post.

"And where should I be?" I wondered sarcastically. "In case you haven't noticed the ship is a shambles."

"The Mess Hall or Sickbay would be more appropriate; and yes, I have noticed." The Vulcan returned in typical fashion; I shook my head.

"Sickbay is loaded with casualties; and my classes on twenty-fourth century tech haven't covered basic use of medical tools yet." I revealed moving away from the station and tuning out the rest of their conversation. "Could I be of assistance here?" I wondered.

"Indeed; we have not assessed the status of our supplies yet, take a crewman and determine the status of the stores in the cargo bays." He requested; I shrugged, it seemed like a pointless task, but better then nothing.

"Ah; Ensign Bristow, how about you?" I called to the young Ensign Kes had introduced me too earlier that month; he nodded and picked up a small grey suitcase like object with Federation markings. Together we left; and yet a part of the inner geek wanted to stick around for the powwow with Janeway I knew was coming.

* * *

I milled around the entrance to Engineering uncertain of where to go now or what to do; by now the Vidiians' were boarding the second Voyager, the first Voyager? Whatever; this entire mess was annoying the hell out of me, not to mention it was driving me to distraction. Trying to figure out who was who and what was what; perhaps it was a good thing I hadn't told the Captain of my future knowledge of these events.  
Might as well just sit back and wait until this little adventure ended; the only problem was finding a good place to sit down.

"Al; could you give me a hand?" Ensign Bristow called from down the corridor.

"Anything not to be standing around waiting." I called back rejoining my recent acquaintance.

* * *

Personal Logs: Supplemental, well after that whole Vidiian' fiasco slash duplicate Voyager situation righted itself out, I spent quite a few weeks working with Ensign Bristow and several others to help repair the ship. If you're wondering about the discrepancy in the timeline; well, let's just say that on an hour long Television show that always had to end on a happy note, they tended to gloss over the amount of time it took to get things done. Especially a good sixty-five thousand light years away from any sort of dry dock and repair facility; this crew was certainly giving a hundred and ten percent.  
Then of course their came the events in the episode titled Innocence; however I was too busy stepping up on my education in Twenty-fourth century technology and history to an extent that I chose to remain in my own personal quarters instead of interacting with the crew. Except of course Ensigns' Bristow and Kim; who've been a real help in furthering my understanding of all the mathematical and scientific elements involved in my new life style.  
I was never one to enjoy school; and my IQ levels, though fairly advanced in certain respects aren't exactly grasping the subtle nuances very well. Then of course there's still my self-defense lessons with B'Elanna; man can she hit, and if it weren't for the fact that I know she's eventually going to marry Tom Paris, I might have tried to get her out on a date one of these days.  
Ah yes; after Innocence there was of course The Thaw, a particularly weak episode in some regards. I never did like that whole; shared minds concept while in suspended animation, and that clown guy was a veritable embarrassment as Star Trek villains go.

I have spent a little time with Ensign Wildman and little Naomi however; in fact Kes encouraged it, she said and I quote 'Children have a way of helping to put perspective on life.' It's not without some grain of truth; I've really taken a shine to the little bit, and whenever Neelix is too busy I'm more then happy to baby-sit her, gives me something to do since I don't have an active duty shift. Hell I don't even have a rank.  
Tuvix was a personable fellow; unfortunately I couldn't enjoy his company as much as the rest of the crew because I knew his ultimate fate, I did offer some consolation to Kes however although I think it was pointless considering her frame of mind at the time.  
When both the Captain and Chakotay were infected by that insect bite during the events of the episode Resolutions; I was, sad to say, lost a little bit in my endeavors to program a personal Holodeck environment. The results of which didn't exactly go as planned; unfortunately I haven't quite mastered every tech aboard this ship yet, although the Doctor is pleased at my rapid progression with learning the ropes of medical science. He's got me working in Sickbay once a week to help Kes out; and let me tell you the show did not prepare me for the amount of talking that EMH can do, he'll go on and on for hours at a time and since there's no handy dandy cuts to show me other personnel aboard ship, I get stuck having to listen to him for fifteen hours straight.  
I appreciate his attempts to learn small talk for the sake of the rest of the crew, but honestly; do I have to be the test subject?

Anyway; the Kazon have been openly active the past few days, ever since we took aboard that Tierna fellow and the Captain's first officer decided we'd all go after Seskas' child.  
I don't know how many more days until the big boarding party, but my nerves are on edge; I want to **Do Something, Anything** to help out this crew. I hate long periods of inactivity; and all that warrior training in me is driving me insane with the desire to go all noble and heroic, but alas there is simply nothing I can do… I just wish I was… Useful.

* * *

I couldn't stand it any longer; remaining stuck in these blasted quarters was just no good, the Kazons' constant attacks was sticking into my strong sense of honor and righteousness. I strapped me sheathed blade around my waist; now was the time for action, the big attack was coming up and I knew the Kazon would take control of this ship.  
However I could take a few of them out before total conquest was had; make them work for it, after all my sword was the best kind of weapon there was, the primitive kind.  
The ship began to shake under heavy attack; the Kazons' were initiating their assault, I was making my way down one corridor when I suddenly remembered something.

"Tierna; if I stop him…" I began to muse only to be cut off by a sudden explosion. "Too late." I cursed; the ship continued to shake under attack; I felt each hit through the deck plates, but something felt a bit off.

"I really don't have time for this." A voice was saying; I turned around at the approaching footsteps, a brunette woman I failed to recognize was leading Ensign Bristow around the corner.

"I don't care." She snapped. "There's been a hull breach; Jenny is trapped." She informed; _hull breach? I don't remember that on the show…_ Without warning a contingent of Kazon rounded the corner opposite; with a cry of alert I charged them, they weren't expecting that and before they could react I was amongst them. I cut one open spilling his blood; another was rendered unconscious by a blow to the head, the third fell to a phaser blast and the fourth ran off for reinforcements.

"Computer; erect a level five force field." Ensign Bristow ordered as the two of them came up to me.

"That won't hold them for long." I noted surprised it had worked; with the amount of damage the ship had taken force fields should have been non-existent.

"Oh my God." The woman gasped trembling; she had most likely never expected to see such a brutal conflict, at least I managed to avoid killing all of them, this was not the time to revert to barbarisms.

"Where is Jenny?" I demanded; the woman shook off her fear and strode confidently into one of the nearby crew quarters, inside was a sight I hadn't expected. The woman known as Jenny; who appeared to be an identical twin to the woman leading us, was pinned under her desk. The bulkhead had exploded inwards; and prior to being sucked back into space it must have ripped the desk clear off its moorings, the structural integrity shielding had snapped into place relatively quickly after that otherwise both the desk and Jenny would have been pulled into space.

"We have to get this off her." Bristow exclaimed kneeling and managing to brace the desk with his back; I gripped the other end and began to pull, it was an obvious strain.

"Gods how I wish Herc was here now." I groaned; closing my eyes I sought inner focus, and with a combined effort Bristow and I managed to pull the desk from its' resting place. Or more accurately I should say; we managed to move it high enough that the unnamed sister could free Jenny.

"Megan." Jenny whispered embracing her with gratitude; Bristow and I let the desk fall back down and we swiftly joined the duo, my practiced eye noticed a slight flicker in the structural integrity field.

"We have to get to the escape pods; a shuttle, we're no good to anyone captured." Bristow stated; I nodded in agreement and quickly led the trio from the quarters, before turning to head down the corridor I quietly ordered the computer to seal the doors just in case that field didn't hold. _Boy am I glad B'Elanna drilled that warning signs for structural integrity failures into me earlier._ I started to make my way down the corridor; when a blast of energy whined out and I felt the oddest tingling sensation throughout my entire body, I collapsed to the deck with a soft moan and an eerily loud thud.  
_Fred should have stunned that goon I knocked out; damn these Kazons' have hard heads._ Was my last conscious thought before blacking out entirely.

* * *

"He's coming around." A voice spoke as the world began to swim into focus once more.

"I'm surprised they didn't kill him." The unmistakable voice of Harry Kim interjected.

"They fear him." Tuvok stated with an air of logic to his tone.

"Wouldn't you if one of your people was disintegrated attempting to disarm a helpless human?" Harry shot back; _ok, Hephaestus really knows how to make a weapon._

"They're changing guards again." B'Elanna spoke up; I groaned and finally managed to get the world to swim into focus, discovering that someone was holding my hand tightly.

"Thank you." She said gratefully; despite our current predicament she was smiling, I couldn't tell if it was Jenny or Megan however since they were twins.

"You showed remarkable courage." Captain Janeway spoke up joining my little fan group; I had no way of knowing how long I'd been out, but it must have been a short time since I could still feel the telltale signs of warp drive activity.

"It's part of the… Job description." I rasped patting the hilt of my sheathed blade; my throat was extremely dry and every muscle in my body hurt like hell, that stun setting wasn't very friendly. Harry gave me a cup of water; I didn't question how or where he'd gotten it, I just drank.

"All of the crew is currently accounted for except Mister Suder and Paris." Chakotay stated approaching us; I sat up groggily and eyed him curiously, part of me wondering what they thought of Mister Suders' absence. He offered a brief smile of gratitude at seeing me awake and apparently healthy; the Captain moved off with Tuvok, Chakotay and B'Elanna while the twin of the woman still holding my hand joined us along with Samantha Wildman and little Naomi.

"I feel like I've been shot by Galvatron." I complained as the stiffness and aches grew decidedly worse with my sudden movements.

"What?" The woman holding my hand asked; I shook my head.

"Forget it; I suppose the Kazon have complete control." I sighed; Sam nodded, with a small groan I shifted into a more comfortable position.

"Terrific; I arrived just in time for all the fun stuff." I complained more to myself then my concerned friends who had no idea what to make of that statement; with a small shrug of my head I pushed aside the pain and awaited what was to come next along with the rest of the crew.

* * *

The Kazon were removing all of our com badges; how fortuitous that I'd neglected to put mine on earlier, I was surprisingly the only one wearing casual dress. Aside from Neelix of course; it was a light and unrestrictive outfit I'd replicated for martial arts classes with B'Elanna, a doubly good thing on this volcanic world where the heat was unbearable.

"A fitting end for a people who would not share their technology." Culluh remarked with a smirk; no wonder the fans hated the Kazon, their smug arrogance and thievish ways reminded me of old world humans. Pirates to be exact; without the cool eye patches or the wondrous and thrilling curses that could befall you if not careful; and they certainly weren't Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, _now there was an actor with talent.  
_"Let's see if you manage to survive; without it." He added before taking off; I chuckled as the Captain ordered us to follow her.

"Piece of cake." I stated with knowing confidence as I patted my swords' hilt.

"Can't you take this more seriously." Jenny accused; at least I'd decided it was Jenny, I sighed and rested my hand upon the hilt caressing its familiar grooves and cold steel.

"I've been living by the sword; I know how to survive." I pointed out as we all made our way across the field.

"Your arrogance is unappreciated." An unknown alien crewman spoke up; I sighed and strode closer to the senior staff, these Starfleet people just did not understand. I was surprised then to see both women follow after me; the one I decided was Megan shooting a glare at the crewman.

"We'll divide the crew into teams; each of you will be a team leader." The Captain ordered. "Make it clear to all your people that we expect to be rescued; and our job is to survive until help arrives." She added; I eyed her briefly in thought before catching sight of Sam and Naomi, the new mother was stumbling slightly as she carried her infant.

"Here; let me." I offered silently approaching her; she smiled gratefully and passed me the infant, though I'd never actually held her until just this moment, instinctively I seemed to know how. "Such a tiny little life; I will protect you." I whispered perhaps louder then I intended because Sam was eyeing me with a strange hint of admiration and slight endearment; I sure hoped nothing like what happened with Gabrielle was going to happen here, she was a married woman after all.

"Help is on the way!" Neelix called out disrupting my inner thoughts; I smiled at that and continued to follow the set path.

"You're a very thoughtful human being." Sam spoke up distracting me from further hearing the senior staffs' conversation. "For a man from the twentieth century that is." She added with a grin; I chuckled at that and paused to shift the baby's weight.

"I hope we can get to know you even better; assuming we ever get off this rock." Megan spoke up bitterly; I offered a look of encouragement.

"We will; I can guarantee it." I whispered more to the baby then Megan; just as well, I wasn't ready to divulge my secret just yet.

"It's very important that this crew be given a sense of hope." I overheard Janeway saying. "That's our most important job right now; our top priority is drinking water, second is shelter to spend the night." She began to speak louder so that the crew could fully hear.

"A clearing with a protected side; like the base of a cliff would be best." Chakotay agreed informing those in hearing range of the better option for shelter as opposed to an open valley or even a partially protected canyon.

"Food, fuel; look for all the basic survival requirements." The Captain called out bringing our march to a sudden halt; Chakotay turned to face those nearest.

"That includes anything that can be used as a tool or weapon." Chakotay added.

"Other then my sword." I added glaring at the few crewmembers looking to me enviously; it wasn't my damn fault the Kazon couldn't disarm me, Hephaestus gave me the sword after all; and after that first one they didn't even bother to try.

"We'll reconvene here in about two hours." Janeway called ignoring my slight outburst or the guilty looks from some of her crew.

"Alright start dividing the crew." Chakotay ordered. "Looks like we don't have much daylight left; we'll spread the teams out in a standard Alpha search pattern to see what we have to work with." He stated.

"Chakotay; Torres you're with me." The captain stated in turn. "Alpha team here." She added.

"That's me; sorry Samantha." I apologized returning Naomi to her.

"I'll take care of her." Megan assured moving off towards Tuvok who'd already called for Beta team; I nodded and rushed to join up further with the Captain, Jenny hot on my heels. Janeway and Chakotay were discussing this new world and I tuned them out; bad enough B'Elanna had drilled me on the basic principles of planets and their classes, I didn't want to hear the standard techno babble again.  
We all paused however and looked back as Voyager began to take off; my eyes couldn't leave the sight, I'd never seen the ship from the outside before. It was more wonderful then I could have imagined; and unlike the rest of the crew I didn't worry that it might be the last time we'd see it, because I knew it would be back.  
With Tom and the Talaxians; and relatively none the worse for wear, and those Kazon insects wouldn't be seen or heard of ever again thanks to the fact that we'd be leaving their space indefinitely.

"Let the trails lead where they may; I will follow." I quoted softly feeling that somehow it was appropriate, and then I turned my back and continued after the Captain ignoring the discovery of our alien neighbors.

* * *

The ship was long gone by now; we were searching for food, water and shelter, and so far the Captain's team wasn't having much luck. We'd been traveling for hours on this hot and dry world; and part of me could not shake the habit of being rearguard. I was the only one with a weapon; my sword being neither technological in nature nor capable of being separated from me by the Kazon thanks to Hephaestus.  
None of our team appeared to object; in fact one Ensign had mentioned in passing that my presence might tip things in our favor when Chakotay and Ensign Kim switched roles, back when Alpha and Gamma teams' met up at the rendezvous point. However I wasn't too optimistic about that, I had been witness to this Episode after all; and I knew my presence couldn't change a damn thing, it made me feel just a tad useless.  
The Captain spotted the stone formations sometime ago and had been leading us to them ever since; we'd passed nothing I'd care to classify as edible and the water wasn't even on our minds.

"All right people; follow me." She called her voice echoing slightly as she passed under the large overhang; the warrior trained part of me approved of her choice, it was a highly defensible position. "Lets' take it slow." She added as she realized how dark it was; I didn't need to be told that however.  
Jenny Delaney almost stumbled as we passed through the arch-like entranceway; I deftly caught her before she could fall, we didn't have a trained medic after all.

"Thanks." She whispered; I smiled a little feeling the small bond of friendship between us grow larger.

"Not a big deal." I returned as we joined the rest inside; the Captain was looking around, examining the area.

"This is the most defensible location we've seen so far." She began pointing out the pros and cons as she explained them. "The overhang should provide us with shelter; and the breeze should keep insects away." She noted; funny she should mention that, seeing as how I personally hadn't seen any insects the whole time being here so far. "All right; lets' make camp." She ordered as she continued her personal exploration; no doubt familiarizing herself with our new homes' entire perimeter.

"This is going to be impossible." One crewman complained out of the Captains' earshot; B'Elanna looked like she was going to start chewing into him, I decided to beat her to it.

"Impossible." I repeated in a low tone of disapproval. "That word shouldn't even be in your vocabulary." I snapped. "You Starfleet types and your technology; take it away and it becomes impossible." I repeated mockingly; I stormed up to the crewman and raised my sword so he could see the glint caused by the sun beating down upon us.  
"I didn't just get this as some trophy; I earned it with sweat, blood and tears. The things I've seen people do without any technology at all… You'd be surprised." I semi-ranted my voice not once wavering from the cool neutral tone I'd adopted. "If I could survive being attacked by a Griffin, Amazons and warlords; all without benefit of my memories I might add, then I… We; can survive a little down time, just think of it as an extended shore leave." I stated finishing my personal dress down of this young upstart; though it was not my place to do so, I felt the need to get some frustration off my chest.

"Mister Desrochers is right." B'Elanna agreed with a small smile of respect directed towards me. "Now the Captain gave us an order." She reminded; and our group began to do what they could to prepare our new home.  
"What's a Griffin?" She asked approaching me; I chuckled rubbing the spot I'd once been injured, despite that it had been healed by a God I still had phantom pains every once and a while.

"A creature of Earth Mythology." Ensign Kim replied joining us; I shook my head.

"It was no myth." I stated with a small smile. "When you come face to face with a creature composed of both lion and hawk; believe me you won't think it merely a myth ever again." I elaborated offering a brief description for B'Elannas' sake; she eyed me with a hint of further approval and then the two of them moved off, I let out a small sigh, things would prove direr tonight. I shrugged my dour thoughts aside and began to seek out a stone that could serve as a decent blade sharpener.

To Be Continued: **Our hero has the skills to help the crew in certain respects; and he's got a weapon, which should tip the balance of power somewhat. Don't get too used to it though; I am quite certain that after these wonderful events are finished unfolding our hero won't be carrying around this marvelous, though admittly somewhat Deux Ex Machina again unless absolutley necessary.  
The Kazon have Voyager; Tom is missing, Alain has met the infamous Delaneys', twins who are both beautiful and highly desirable, will he hook up with them?  
Who can say; his love life so far has only consisted of Gabrielle, and they really never got the proper chance to do anything about it, but I have faith that he'll get some action if you'll pardon the innuendo, one of these days. Of course to fit into this rating I'll have to leave it up to the imagination, but forget all that now; let us be contented with the knowledge that our hero may yet have a role to play, things may inadvertantly alter due to his presence amongst the crew... And a certain snake-like beast that has not yet been discovered on this world might prove more of a challenge then in the actual episode. **


	4. Chapter Four: Basics, Part Two

**Author's Notes:** To each his own tastes I suppose; I really don't have anything against the Clown episode, but I couldn't reasonably see any reason to have my character around in any of those scenes... So I just copped out with the whole personal log thing and fast forwarded to the Kazon incident that ends Season Two and begins Season Three.  
You're way off base I'm afraid; although the twins do have some moments involving teasing and the like I'm afraid they aren't the ones who he'll be lucky with, I've actually created an original character who sort of starts off as a villain, but then becomes a love interest of sorts.  
I can't argue with everything else you've said though; in fact if it weren't for the fact that we saw the Delaney's off the holodeck and in the corridors I would have forgotten that they were brunettes and not blonds as I'd accidentaly originaly described them upon their initial introduction to Al.  
Temporal Prime Directive will be brandied around quite a bit at certain intervals I would imagine; and although many of the episodes I used don't have any changes actually occuring from what was established, there are quite a few that do manage to have a few changes... You'll see what I mean in the next couple of chapters; heck even this chapter has a pretty big out of continuity moment.  
Without further ado; I update yet again... Man at this rate I won't have any more stories to share before August. Oh and thanks a lot for mentioning my scene transition problems in that e-mail Agent-G; because of you I remembered the fancy line divider dealie that's clickable in the edit/preview section which allows what I must say a pretty darn handy scene transitioning ploy... Oi; tried to hard to use big words.

* * *

"That's all that's left of Hogans' uniform Captain." Chakotay reported; I was doing my best not to listen in, standing guard as I was near the entrance with a few others, but the echoes carried up to us. "We didn't find anything else." He added sounding a little somber; that creature that attacked him would be making a repeat performance much later on, if I remembered things correctly.  
Perhaps I would try my hand at combating it; despite my stay aboard a Federation starship these past… Months? My skills were still top of their game; it would be a piece of cake to, slay the dragon, as the term went. 

"This is my fault; if I hadn't told Hogan to pick up those bones." Neelix began his voice choked up; I shook my head slightly, blaming himself was not productive.

"You shouldn't blame yourself Neelix." Kes whispered; her own voice carrying surprisingly well despite her low tone, this place would not afford many private conversations that's for sure.

"Stop it." The Captain interjected. "There's no time to worry about blame… Hogan was a fine officer and a good man; and our job is to make sure his death is the last time, I will not let this planet destroy my crew." Her voice rose with each moment; her ideals were noble and I couldn't help, but smile at the sudden thought of Janeway meeting Xena. The Warrior Princess would most definitely approve.  
"Kes; see to it everyone knows that the tunnels are off limits, I want clear safety protocols established." She ordered; no problem there, if anyone couldn't hear the echoing words it was because they were either asleep or in the area open to the sky, where the echoing effect probably didn't reach. "Mr. Tuvok we need weapons."

"I have already begun to design some rudimentary devices Captain." The Vulcan returned in typical fashion; I had to smile at that, typical Vulcan logic.

"What's our food and water status?" The Captain asked of Chakotay; I was most interested to hear that response, my stomach would not keep silent.

"I know it sounds gristly, but I can make solar stills with the material from this uniform; we could have water tomorrow." He reported; interesting solution, even if I didn't understand what a solar still was… Although I seriously wondered if it could provide for the entire crew.

"Do it." She ordered softly; barely audible.

"Captain; none of the search teams were able to find any plants of nutritional value." Neelix reported in turn.

"Then tell the crew to start turning over rocks." She ordered. "If anyone balks at eating these; tell them it's an order from their captain, they may be the difference between life or death." She added before storming off; I knew what she was talking about though, insects… How; disturbing.

"Mister Desrochers; may I borrow your services for a moment?" Tuvok requested approaching me; I shrugged slightly.

"Sure; what did you want exactly?" I wondered moving to join him.

"I require the use of your blade to fashion tools for our own use." He explained; I grinned and passed the broadsword to the Vulcan, who easily managed to lift it.

"Knock yourself out Mister Tuvok." I stated; he quirked an eyebrow in that annoying Vulcan fashion and then strode off to his duty, no need to worry about things just yet, that creature wasn't a threat at the moment.

* * *

"Huddle together in groups; that'll preserve body heat, no time to be shy." The Captain ordered a short time later as the cold of this planets' night became readily apparent; no problem for me, Megan and Jenny Delaney hadn't left my side since I stopped standing watch. The women were sort of cuddled up next to me and both sound asleep; they were making me a little to hot actually, but if it meant they weren't suffering from this cold it didn't really bother me.  
A few of the male crewmen were eyeing me enviously; Sam however was more concerned with Naomi and I couldn't blame her, despite the fact that Neelix did more to help take care of the infant then I did concurrently I had a soft spot for the adorable little girl. 

"How's she doing Samantha?" The Captain suddenly asked crouching close to us; I'd tuned out her conversation with B'Elanna and Harry about their food discovery, so she'd taken me a little by surprise.

"I don't know Captain; she seems tired, listless." Sam returned worriedly.

"Maybe she's just adjusting to the environment." Janeway returned thoughtfully; attempting to assuage her doubts. "After all she was born in space." She added with a slight smile. "Make sure you stay close to the fire." She added turning her attentions away from Sam and over to Chakotay; I tuned her out again, the warmth of the Delaney's was making me so sleepy… I shifted slightly for a tad more comfort and proceeded to fall asleep surprisingly fast.

* * *

I awoke with a start the next morning to discover my sword at my side; Tuvok must have finished fashioning his arrows, I glanced around in slight confusion. The Delaneys weren't next to me as they'd been the night before and some people appeared to be missing… _Of course; those aliens captured Neelix and Kes last night, how could I have forgotten that?_

"The creature." I exclaimed leaping to my feet and grasping my blade; though I couldn't place my strange unease, the Captain shot me a startled look.

"Is something wrong?" She asked; I shook my head distractedly.

"No time." I returned and ran off; pausing only briefly to grab one of the cucumber thingies and hope to God it was edible.

* * *

I don't exactly know why I ran; or how long I was running, but my instincts and memories of this particular episode screamed at me to get involved, probably that damn nobility Xena instilled. The Captains' search party found me crouched behind some boulders watching the odd aliens with their fire; she and Ensign Kim took a look. 

"You knew about this." She accused.

"Yes; I really don't want to explain that right now though, we do have more pressing concerns." I pointed out.

"Agreed." She returned.

"Do you really think Commander Chakotay would go in there; after what happened to Hogan?" Harry asked.

"He may have had no other choice." Janeway returned; I would have gone in already myself, but I did not want to kill anyone.

"How do we get them away from the tunnels?" B'Elanna wondered.

"A couple of phaser blasts would do the trick." Harry replied slightly sarcastic; the Captain snapped her head back to eye us.

"Who are the fastest runners here?" She asked glancing to me briefly; I shook my head.

"You'll need me." I stated knowingly.

"I was on the decathlon team before I quit the Academy." B'Elanna spoke up. "The track and field coach was furious with me." She added in jest; I chuckled slightly at that and glanced back at the aliens, what I wouldn't give for a universal translator right about now.

"Anyone else here who can run?" The Captain asked once more.

"Yeah." A crewman replied.

"Ok; you three will be the sprint team, once you reach our camp you should be safe." She stated; I knew there wasn't much time to waste, that creature was in there. Our sprint team moved up to the plateau above the tunnel entrance and taunted the aliens; they led them off on a merry chase and I rushed out one step ahead of the Captain.  
First we had to get that brush out of the way; grabbing a few of the burning swatches I tossed them aside scattering the flames. The next few moments were a blur as the Captain's team and Chakotay's team met up; they tried to collapse the tunnel before the odd creature could reach us.  
They were supposed to succeed, but for some reason instead of creating a rockslide that would protect us; their spears snapped.

"Everybody out." Chakotay ordered; we ran out and the creature followed, it charged for Kes, but missed the Ocampa as she dove out of the way with a cry of fear. Foolishly I leapt atop the serpentine back; the creature turned its' head slightly its' eyes falling on me, with a roar it snapped for the morsel in easy reach ignoring the few arrows and spears tossed its way. This was not my forte; I'd only ever fought men, unless you counted the Uruk-Hai Ares had somehow conjured.  
Rushing; perhaps heedlessly towards the beasts open mouth, I sure hoped this creatures' brain was where it oughta be. With a mighty cry I drove the blade through the open maw and out the back of its' head; a dark greenish blue substance gushed forth and the beast bucked, I was thrown from the creature by its' death throes and slammed arm first into the rock wall.  
There was a sharp stab of pain as the bones in my arm splintered and almost tore through the skin, but I wasn't going to let a little thing like that stop me. Climbing back to my feet I shut my eyes ignoring the pain; with a mental call the Olympian blade re-appeared in my hand free of the creatures' blood.

"Well done Mister Desrochers." The Captain complimented.

"God that smarts." I groaned eyeing the twisted arm; Tuvok helped set the bone however we could not splint it here, I shrugged it off and we returned as swiftly as possible to camp.

* * *

Once back at camp we set the bone properly and the three senior officers moved off for a conference; I found myself the center of attention. 

"You fought an alien beast and won." Megan exclaimed in awe; I nodded wincing slightly as the sudden tremor caused me to jostle my arm.

"You're really something else." One of the male crewmen remarked with a light chuckle; I shrugged non-chalantly.

"One does what one can to survive." I pointed out as the next tremor hit; I received brief flashes of memories of the giants' footsteps, but dismissed them. "It wasn't supposed to exit the cave though." I muttered more to myself.

"If we get back to the ship; do you think we could… Go on a date?" A rather attractive female crewman wondered a little nervously; I smiled slightly to help put her at ease and shook my head.

"I'm afraid I'll be a tad busy; B'Elanna still hasn't finished my education in all the workings of the ship yet." I apologized; Jenny grasped my uninjured arm almost possessively.

"Besides; we've got plans." She added haughtily; I was about to protest when another tremor hit, I grimaced at renewed pain and shot a glare at the ground.

"Stupid…" I trailed off at Ensign Kims' cry of alarm; everyone began to race out of the camp, we had to get away from the volcano before it erupted. "Forgot about that part." I muttered reclaiming my sword and joining the crew in escape; we fled swiftly and orderly, no need to panic.  
I found myself mostly in back; helping Sam as best as I could with a broken arm, poor Naomi was sick, which did not bode well. Events followed a pattern I was all too familiar with; the volcano erupted, the crew made it to a small rocky area where we ran into the aliens once more. Chakotay helped one of said aliens from certain death and we sort of became friends as they led us to safer grounds, _just like the episode; so why did that snake thing get out? Perhaps because of my presence?  
_Voyagers' return was right on cue; I was nearly bowled over by Mister Neelix in his enthusiasm at seeing it once more, at least I could get my arm fixed up.

* * *

The Doctor and Tuvok stood over Mister Suder as I waited patiently for the hologram to tend to my needs, my arm could wait a few more minutes for this. 

"You would have been proud of him Mister Tuvok." The Doc stated.

"I offer you a Vulcan prayer Mister Suder." Tuvok stated in turn. "May your death bring you the peace you never found in life." He added; I kept respectfully silent as Chakotay looked over Seska with a hint of regret, the Doctor meanwhile turned to me as he picked up a tricorder.

"I see you've been up to your usual practices in my absence." He remarked the somber mood of moments before broken now by his bedside manner.

"Good to see you to Doc." I quipped as my injury began to heal minus any discomfort; it was amazing how this technology worked. Ah yes; at least everything turned out ok in the end, but still… _Why did events alter slightly to reflect my presence on the planet?_ I knew I wouldn't get much sleep until I knew the answer to that; and there was still the matter of letting the Captain know about how I knew things… A conversation I did not relish in the slightest.

* * *

Early the next morning the Captain called me to the main briefing room; since I didn't know the way Mister Neelix graciously offered to show it to me; she had also requested that I bring my sword. I entered the room to discover Ensign Kim, Lieutenant Tuvok, Lieutenant Paris, Lieutenant Torres, Commander Chakotay, Kes and Captain Janeway seated at the impressive and pristine looking table.  
Neelix took his customary seat next to Kes; I on the other hand had only one choice, the chair not yet occupied by the Doctor due to his lacking of the mobile emitter, of course the Doc was still listening in via the monitor. 

"Mister Desrochers; I have the distinct feeling that there is something you neglected to inform us about upon your initial arrival, concerning your… Recent insight into the dangers' presented to my first officer." The Captain began once we were all seated; I smiled sheepishly and had to nod in agreement of her assessment.

"You could say that; my home reality is not your typical early Twenty-First century." I returned softly. "So to speak; you recall I mentioned the fact that the previous reality I'd visited was represented as a Television show on my Earth?" I asked; the Captain nodded as did Tuvok, I scratched the back of my neck nervously uncertain how they'd take this. "Well in point of fact this reality is also represented as a Television show there… And before you ask; no, I have no idea how to explain it. The only plausible reason I could come up with upon my initial arrival was that for some reason my Earth has windows, doorways even possibly into alternate realities and we take them to be nothing more then entertainment." I stated; I'd researched my response to just this question many hours last night, I'd been so nervous I had trouble falling asleep anyway so I figured why not present it in as professional a manner as humanly possible.

"That is a logical conclusion." Tuvok conceded with a slight nod.

"So you're saying; we're nothing more then fictional characters to you?" B'Elanna asked disbelievingly.

"Negative… Er I mean; of course not Lieutenant, if my previous experience has taught me anything there is a lot more to this then I am privy to." I returned with a gentle shake of my head and a heavy sigh. "I can't even begin to figure out just what this means, but if I had to guess; well I'd have to go with the common perception that there is a vast majority of multiple realities, universes, whatever you want to call them, which create one big tapestry. An Omniverse if you will." I reluctantly admitted; the senior staff shared a few looks, at least Starfleet personnel had more inclination to believe in the existence in multiple realities. The Mirror-verse was proof enough of that; or even that Anti-Matter universe that Captain Kirk semi-discovered when dealing with the human Lazarus.

"Fascinating." Neelix spoke up. "You're saying that there could be an infinite amount of alternate realities out there." He added with a twinkle in his eye. "It sounds rather exciting."

"I have a feeling this involves temporal mechanics in some way." Ensign Kim muttered; Tom was smirking though I couldn't tell the reasons behind his expression, the Doctor however looked skeptical.

"I find this concept rather hard to believe." He stated. "I will admit there is some precedent for the existence of alternate realities." He hastily added at the looks directed towards him. "But to believe that there could be completely alien universes out there, it's rather ludicrous if you were to ask me."

"Well we're not asking you." Tom muttered beneath his breath.

"I heard that Mister Paris." The Doc shot back in annoyance.

"People please; we're not here to debate the veracity of Mister Desrochers' claims, after all I think we have more then ample proof that he believes what he's telling us." The Captain pointed out eyeing Chakotay briefly before that piercing gaze returned to me. "How far does the extent of this knowledge go?" She wondered.

"Bits and pieces I'm afraid; I know just about everything major this crew will have or has had to face since arriving in the Delta Quadrant, from the initial arrival due to the Caretaker to the ultimate means you shall eventually reach your destination." I stated openly; no sense in trying to cover up the fact that I had knowledge on their return to the Alpha Quadrant, however I should at least offer up some hint of doubt. "Of course that information could be suspect." I hastily added dashing Ensigns' Kims' hopes judging by his look. "That snake creature **was** supposed to be blocked off by Tuvoks' and Chakotays' ploy; however as we know the ploy failed and I had to kill it with my sword."

"So what you're saying is you know stuff about us that could happen months or years from now, but it's possible that your knowledge isn't exactly accurate." Chakotay repeated for the benefit for everyone involved, I nodded in accordance.

"You do realize what this means?" The Captain asked.

"Temporal Prime Directive." I remarked with a sigh; she nodded approvingly and I simply accepted it with a small smile. "Not a problem; I haven't used the knowledge in the slightest, except with the incident on that planet… And I still don't understand why that snake creature deviated from what I knew." I admitted with a frown; the Captain dismissed it with a tiny shrug.

"Now then; there is the matter of your exemplary actions during our recent predicament." She spoke up sounding far too serious; I was truthfully amazed that the senior staff had accepted everything at face value, but then again I hadn't given them reason to doubt my claims. "Mister Desrochers." The Captain began climbing from her seat; I shied back slightly as she began to circle the table and drew closer to me. "Due to your exemplary actions and with strong urgings from your tutor Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres; I hereby instate you with the honorary rank of Ensign, with all the privileges and responsibilities said rank entails." She stated; presenting me with a small box holding a tiny circular pip within, I didn't know what to say to that. I'd been actually feeling a little put off with nothing to do; and no replicator rations of my own to use for frivolous things, I had taken to spending a lot of time in my quarters reading up on the Starfleet database. Enjoying the reports written by the Captains of the past that had been open to public viewing, Picard, Kirk, Archer, Sisko and many others; as an Ensign that meant I'd have to attend duty shifts.

"Does this mean I'm going to have duties to perform beyond learning what little there is left to learn from B'Elanna?" I wondered seeking clarification and wanting to hear the answer from the Captains' own lips.

"Yes Ensign; B'Elanna feels you'll learn better and be more capable in an emergency should the need arise, if you learn how the stations work." She explained; I grinned like a little kid who'd just gotten a big heaping bowl of ice cream. "That means you're expected to wear a Starfleet uniform Ensign." She added in a sharper tone; I quickly rose to my feet and surprised her by giving her a huge hug, despite the breach in protocol.

"Thank you Captain; you won't be disappointed, I may not have attended the academy, I may be hopeless with spatial mechanics and warp cores and all that stuff; at least for the moment, but I am definitely eager to pull my own weight… You have no idea how boring it can be stuck in your quarters almost twenty-four seven." I stated enthusiastically; I took the pip and attached it to my collar, then I swiftly adopted a straight back pose, hands clasped behind my back. "Anything further I can do Captain?" I asked eager to share my new position with the small group of friends I'd made.

"No Ensign; you're dismissed." She returned; I nodded and began to leave, before Tuvok cleared his throat.

"Yes Lieutenant?" I called turning to face him.

"From now on I expect you to observe proper Starfleet Protocols." He stated. "As Chief of security onboard Voyager I strongly caution you to avoid such outward displays of emotion in view of the crew in future. I also insist that from this point forward you leave your… Weapon; behind in your quarters unless absolutely necessary." He added; I nodded at his strong suggestions and deftly turned to leave the room, as I did so I could tell some of the senior staff must have been smirking at my rapid change of attitude, but then again they weren't aware that I'd been secretly practicing for just such an occasion.  
With a small grin; now that the doors had closed behind me, I quickly made my way back to my quarters where I could return my sword and try out the Starfleet uniform, I hadn't worn one yet.

* * *

Much later during the lunch period I was sitting with my friends having finally finished brushing up on Starfleet Protocol; I'd figured it'd be a good idea, hugging the Captain wasn't in there incidentally. Sam and Naomi were present; as well as Megan and Jenny Delaney and Ensign Bristow, though he was slightly more engrossed in the data pad he'd brought with him then my new duds. 

"Congratulations." Megan exclaimed reaching out a hand and squeezing my own as a sign of affection and encouragement, she probably would have hugged me if we were standing.

"I don't get why most of my first duty shifts have to be in engineering though; I don't understand that much of all the scientific principles behind the tech down there." I admitted tugging uncomfortably at the collar; I could see why Captain Picard always tugged at his uniforms' waistline all the time, whoever designed these things should have considered a better design.

"Obviously because B'Elanna doesn't want you out of her sight." Megan replied with a smile.

"The woman does not have a crush on him." Jenny retorted vehemently.

"No; that's something reserved for you." Sam countered with a sly smirk; she looked haggard and I couldn't blame her, Naomi was still crying like mad and my heart went out for the poor mother.

"Never." She denied dismayed as she caught sight of the knowing smirk on her sisters' and my lips. I glanced briefly around the mess hall catching sight of several crewmen eyeing us pointedly; some of them appeared aggravated by the bawling Naomi, whereas most of them were glancing at my entourage jealously. Even the women; they probably wanted to be in the place of the Delaneys' after all they couldn't be jealous of Sam, she was already married.  
I rolled my eyes with a sign of annoyance; what was it about a handsome, buff guy who rescued damsels in distress that appealed to most women?

"Well, well; Ensign Desrochers has a nice ring to it." Tom remarked with a smile as he joined our group.

"Personally I still prefer Al, but at least Ensign Desrochers is better then Mister Desrochers; that always makes me feel like an old man." I whispered conspiratorially; Tom chuckled at that and Megan shot me a thoughtful look.

"I'm not surprised; such a lengthy last name is a real tongue twister." She observed; Sam let out a tired sigh of exasperation pausing in her rocking motions to brush her hair out of her eyes.

"Please Naomi; I've fed you, I've changed you; why are you so upset?" She pleaded desperate for some peace and quite. "She's been like this since we got back." She explained for our benefit; Megan and Jenny didn't know what to say, Bristow looked genuinely uninterested and Tom was a little uncertain.

"Maybe I can help." Neelix wondered coming up to our table.

"It's no good Neelix." I stated with a knowing smirk; after all I'd babysat the child on occasion, whenever she got this way I tended to sing to her rather then pick her up because I was afraid of dropping her back then. "She needs something that a Talaxian can't give; and I'm afraid Samantha isn't in any condition to do it either, may I?" I requested reaching out for the child; Sam nodded graciously and passed me the infant, her crying instantly intensified and I held her closer starting to hum ever so softly.

"If you can get her to stop you'd be a miracle worker." Tom remarked in a tone that said he wasn't very confident with my child rearing skills; of course he didn't know what I'd been doing when I was watching over the adorable infant, she could be surprisingly gentle and easy to handle if you knew how. Ignoring Toms' remark; and now that I'd gotten the tempo down pat, I slowly began to sing adopting one of the songs from Disney's Hocus Pocus and altering the words to suit the current predicament.

"Hush now Naomi; I'll sing thee away, into a land of enchantment… Hush now Naomi; all fears drift away, here in the garden of magic." I began in a soft low tone; instantly the entire room quieted down in sudden surprise; except Naomis' cries of course, I could tell all eyes were on me, but I ignored them.  
"The wind in the trees; drifts softly, the flowers are always in bloom… Evil can't touch you; here in this place, I will forever protect you. Creatures of wonder; the great and the small, gather around and comfort you… Your mother is near; your Godfather as well, and they shan't ever stray far away." I continued my voice rising with my confidence; miraculously Naomi was quieting down and stopped squirming.  
"Hush now Naomi; I'll sing thee away, into a land of enchantment… Hush now Naomi; your fears drift away, here in the garden of magic. Unicrons; Pegasi, Centaurs as well, Dragons of all shapes and sizes… Wood Nymphs; and Dryads, Satyrs and Elves, all will protect you from harm." I added; as soon as I started it was so easy to come up with words, of course the melody wasn't original and some of the words were not my own, but that was unimportant. Naomi yawned and burbled happily as she seemed to shift in my arms and her eyes slowly began to close; time to end this, I changed into a softer and quieter tone now knowing she'd soon fall asleep.  
"Hush now little bit; I'll sing thee away, into a land of enchantment… Hush now Naomi; no harm will come to you, here on the Starship Voyager." I finished softly my own eyes having closed; a smile caressed my features and I could tell she'd fallen asleep, the silence was disturbing, I opened my eyes to see the looks of wonderment and surprise aimed my way. Sam however was filled with tired gratitude and she leaned forward to kiss my cheek; causing my heart to skip a beat in sudden fear, but I was taking the gesture the wrong way.

"Thank you." She stated softly taking Naomi back from me; I frowned a little, something about holding the child felt right for some reason, but I quickly buried the feelings.

"I don't believe it." Tom spoke up with a laugh. "You have talent." He complimented.

"Is there anything you can't do?" Jenny asked in a dreamy tone as she made moon eyes at me; I blushed furiously and deftly rose from my seat.

"All I did was put a crying baby to sleep; it's not that hard if you know good lullabies, although the original version of that song is far from a lullaby." I hastily countered; then I politely took my leave, feeling sudden extreme conscientiousness and a strong desire to be anywhere, but here.

"We definitely know how to pick good friends." Megan remarked with a smile as she turned to her half-finished meal.

"I think I'm slowly losing a job." Neelix remarked with a tiny smile; Samantha shook her head.

"Naomi will always need you Neelix." She countered. "But I think we've definitely found the perfect replacement for when we're both busy." She added with a smile. "I had no idea he'd been singing to her." She admitted.

"You mean he's done that before?" Tom wondered incredulously.

"Isn't it obvious?" Jenny reprimanded. "The ease with which he settled into the task?" She added pointedly; Tom merely shook his head, women were hard to figure out even in the Twenty-Fourth century, and he wasn't really interested in knowing how they knew everything they did right this very minute.

To Be Continued: **TOTAL FLUFF ALERT! Ha, ha, ha; by now you've read that last part and may be a tad confused; the song in question is sung by Sarah Jessica Parker in the Disney film Hocus Pocus, a live action film that more then often doesn't really get respect from movie critics. At least I like it; if you've never seen the movie, or can't remember the rythm of the song it sort of goes mostly like this throughout the entire length, of course in the movie it's vastly shorter and has nothing to do with making a child feel safe... Anway the tempo; it's kind of like... Bum, bum, bum, bum baaaa, bum, bum, bum, baaaa, baaaaaa, bum, bum, deeper bum, baaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaa. And that's basically what it sounds like if I'm not mistaken... I haven't got any idea how better to explain it and there's no way I'm going to phone all my readers up and sing it to them. shudders>  
ANYWAY; in the next exciting chapter we skip a handful of episodes and find ourselves journeying into the past; as Voyager encounters the nasty Captain Braxton and causes a chain reaction that leads to Chronowerx Industries and Mister Starling and all that Jazz... Of course our Hero goes along for the ride; even if he doesn't get into as much action as he did this time around, but when you're... Aha, now that would be telling.  
Prepare for excitement and more Naomi fluff as Al blossoms into the perfect stand in dad for the little bit; as he affectionately calls her, and don't blame me, Al watches too much Buffy the Vampire Slayer.**

"DO NOT!"

**OI; Characters do not speak during these moments, so go back to Voyager and find something to do.**

Al grumbles and leaves; the writer then also leaves, because it's time to update...


	5. Chapter Five: Futer's End Redux

**Author's Notes:** Well Agent-G Alain couldn't tell anyone about the creature because first of all he wasn't on that team; and secondly even though he acts like he didn't know about it until later and I never actually mentioned it in the story, if Hogan hadn't died they wouldn't have had his uniform to use to create the solar still to get the water the crew needed to survive.  
See; everything works out that way... Although I'm not sure what you mean about domino effect; only Hogan died on that planet, no body else got killed as far as I remember. Alain talking about Kirk; well now there's something I never thought of honestly, I haven't written any scenes like that in any of the stories so far, but I suppose I could add one to further his friendship scenes with the Delaneys' and stuff.  
That's the beauty about writing a rough draft first and perfecting it on the computer later; you can add stuff you might not have thought of when you wrote the original rough draft.  
Oh; and my OC Character romance was always planned that way, it really had nothing to do about the relationships on the ship, I wanted Al to get into a very intense relationship with a type of woman, and so I created her. Of course as I said before she starts out as a sort-of villain; and she's not officialy a member of the crew. I don't want to get into too many details since you won't meet her until the third Voyager story, but suffice it to say a certain character with a name that also happens to be a letter of the alphabet has something to do with it all.  
Well; now that my review has been adressed I shall update once again, boy it sure would be nice to get more then one review per chapter... Maybe I should slow down on these updates and let people actually read the story... Of course some people might have been put off by my whole; this is a continuation of a story spiel and aren't really interested in reading it...  
Oh; and this chapter starts off after the opening scene from the episode titled Future's End, Part One, it's the one where Voyager first encounters Captain Braxton of the twenty-ninth century, and the reason why I didn't start right from the very beginning of that episode was mainly because I just didn't feel like incorporating it, especially since this scene doesn't even feature Alain as it stands.

* * *

The Captain regained consciousness after their harrowing trip through the temporal anomaly and climbed back to her feet, ignoring the tennis ball she'd been carrying earlier.

"Status." She called out; her crew was also swift to recover.

"Primary systems are coming back online." Tuvok reported examining his station as he spoke. "The weapons grid and power array took heavy damage." He added glancing up at his captain.

"The temporal rift is closed." Ensign Kim revealed in a subdued tone; he always hated these wild trips.

"Where are we?" Chakotay enquired glancing to the young Asian; Mister Paris ran his hands over the controls for the view screen, when he saw where they were he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Home." He replied in a reverent tone.

"We just cut across half the Galaxy." Chakotay stated in a stunned tone; the Captains' expression spoke volumes, it was good to see Earth again.

"The rift must have originated here." She surmised her own voice filled with slight hope. "Hail Starfleet command." She requested; Tuvok complied, but after a moment his station beeped negatively.

"No response on standard frequencies." He reported. "Curious." He added as his station began to alert him to a new development. "I am picking up a multitude of narrow band EM signals." He informed regarding the Captain.

"Lets' hear." She returned; the Vulcan complied and instantly a series of odd voices erupted over the com channels, many sounding like Earth made television, radio or telephone signals. "The question isn't where we are." The Captain began signaling Tuvok to end playback. "It's when we are." She added turning her gaze to Ensign Kim. "Mister Kim."

"According to astrometric readings." The young Asian began examining readouts before him with rapid eye movements. "The year is nineteen ninety-six." He informed.

"The late Twentieth-Century." Chakotay observed in a hushed tone; this entire development was remarkable and cruel both at the same time, to be back at Earth, but in the wrong timeframe.

"Captain; they had surveillance satellites during this time." Tom informed quickly.

"Maintain a high orbit." She ordered. "And modulate the shields to scatter their radar; we don't want to alarm the natives." She added.

"What about the time ship?" Chakotay wondered. "Is it here too?"

"There is no sign of the vessel in orbit." Tuvok informed. "Scanning the planets' surface." He stated activating the scanning array. "I am picking up sub-space readings emanating from the northern hemisphere." He revealed.

"Sub-space technology shouldn't exist for another hundred years or so." Chakotay stated climbing to his feet as he spoke.

"Could be our friend from the Twenty-ninth century." Janeway returned. "Localize it." She ordered as both officers strode towards Tuvoks' station; the Vulcan complied swiftly.

"North American continent." He stated. "Pacific Coast… The city of, Los Angeles." He revealed looking directly to the Captain on that last remark.

"We've got to go down there." She stated turning back to her crew. "If it is Captain Braxton; he's the key to all this, and at the moment his ship is the only way we have of getting back to our own century." She added. "Chakotay, Tuvok, Paris; you're with me." She ordered selecting her away team; a small thought popped into her head and she tapped her com badge. "Ensign Desrochers." She requested.

"Ah; yes." The young man acknowledged; it sounded like a baby was crying, which could mean only one thing.

"Report to transporter room two. "She requested; she didn't know why she wanted the strange traveler along, but she felt a strange need for him to offer his input. After all; he had been appointed a position on her ship, and he did have knowledge that could prove useful.

"Right… I hope you don't mind company." He muttered before the line went dead.

"Mister Kim; you have the bridge." Janeway called as she and her team made their way to the turbo lift.

"Yes Mame." The young man returned eagerly moving to take his new post.

"As I recall Tom you're something of an aficionado on twentieth-century America." Janeway remarked casually.

"That's right." He agreed.

"What will we need to pass as locals in this era?" She wondered entering the turbo lift.

"Simple; nice clothes, fast car… Lots' of money." He returned before the doors shut and they were on their way.

* * *

I entered sickbay and glanced around for the Doctor; he was in his office and noticed me immediately, he approached me with a small smile on his lips. I knew he wasn't going to like what I was going to ask of him, but it was necessary; Samantha was still on duty shift for another three hours and Neelix was far too busy. The Captain might not approve, but I had a feeling she'd overlook my breach in protocol; I took my duties seriously, all of them.

"Greetings Ensign; how may I be of assistance today?" He asked; apparently he was practicing with small talk and different ways to greet people.

"I've been chosen for the away team; and I can't leave Naomi, Sam trusts me… I need you to alter her physical appearance so her Ktarian features will be disguised." I requested.

"I most certainly will not; she's a baby, not a crewman." He retorted haughtily; I sighed and gently rocked the now upset Naomi.

"Please Doc; I don't have time to argue, I'll do it myself if I have to." I threatened; the Doc appeared taken aback, he knew I didn't have enough experience for that and I was counting on his ethical sub-routines to help me out in this instance.

"I strongly disapprove, but I will perform the necessary surgery; I would hardly trust an amateur with such a delicate task." He stated once again in a haughty toned voice before he plucked up a device I failed to recognize and got to work. I carefully hid my smug smile; my ploy had worked, but he had caved in a little faster then I would have thought.

* * *

Shortly after my trip to sickbay I joined the away team in transporter room two; Naomi was now resting comfortably in a rather unique stroller design, I'd crafted it for easy transport and minimal aggravation. I'd also thought to pack several spare diapers; baby formula and a bottle of fresh milk, Chakotay eyed me uncertainly as I arrived.

"You took longer then I expected." The Captain remarked ignoring Naomis' presence. "In the future when called for an away mission I expect you to be prompt." She added stepping up onto the transporter platform.

"Ah; yes mame." I returned moving to join her; Chakotay made to protest, but the Captain shot him an impatient look and he hastily moved to assist me in lifting the stroller.

"Is there any special reason you are bringing Ensign Wildmans' daughter along?" Tuvok wondered as he also joined us; Tom was inputting a series of co-ordinates into the transporter controls and so not really paying attention.

"Ah; I felt she could use the fresh air." I attempted with a sheepish expression; the Captain simply nodded at that, I couldn't help, but feel that she only wanted me along because of my possible future knowledge.

"We're all set." Tom stated quickly joining us. "You sure you've got enough diapers?" He joked; I shot him a glare to hide my nervousness as I was transported for the first time ever, the experience was quite unique and I felt strangely at peace as the physical experiences washed over me for the last instant and I appeared on the surface of the Earth.

* * *

Standing on the Boardwalk near our beam in point I watched as the Captain and her team took in the sights; feeling semi-conscientious with the baby stroller beside me, at least Naomi was doing ok after her first transport.

"We could have worn our Starfleet uniforms; I doubt if anyone would have noticed." Tuvok observed before the group left the railing; I followed along doing my best not to look like a tourist, which could be construed as an easy mark for local criminal elements.

"The sub-space readings are coming from within a hundred meter radius of our position." The Captain stated eyeing the area as she held her tricorder in a semi-concealed manner; though I had a feeling most people would pay it no mind, judging by the amount of cellular phones I saw all over the place. "But I can't pinpoint the source." She added.

"I find it hard to believe that a ship from the twenty-ninth century could have landed on this beach without being noticed." Chakotay returned sounding somewhat bemused.

"We have no idea what kind of technology they might have in the future." Janeway pointed out now covering her tricorder from view of prying eyes as we passed certain individuals. "Maybe it's cloaked. Lets' spread out; Tuvok, Paris go check the shoreline, Chakotay and I will search the boardwalk." She ordered.

"Aye Captain." Tuvok returned as the two of them began to head off.

"What about Al?" Tom asked pointing out the fact that I was remaining near the top of the stairs with Naomis' stroller; I'd been searching for another ramp to no avail, the Captain glanced up at me.

"Mister Desrochers will you be ok on your own for a little while; we probably won't actually need your insight right this moment." She called out; I nodded gratefully.

"Yes Captain; I think it would be in our best interest if I remained uninvolved, I have my communicator… Plus it might be wise that I keep myself and the child pre-occupied considering I wouldn't want to… Complicate matters." I returned in as low a tone as I could muster giving our distance; the Captain went over my words, obvious to the hidden meaning behind them.

"I still think we shouldn't have even brought him." Chakotay muttered aside to Tuvok; who had to nod in agreement.

"Very well Mister Desrochers, but don't forget to check in with the ship." She stated with a warm smile; the away team split up and I crouched to regard the infant in my charge.

"Well Naomi; lets' see if we can't find our own little adventure." I remarked tickling the baby's stomach and eliciting a tiny giggle; she cooed happily and partially reached up for me, what joy babysitting for a twenty-fourth century infant.

* * *

Around two-thirty I finally managed to find what I was looking for; in retrospect it probably would have been better to simply use a taxi, but I had a feeling I might need the funds Tom had supplied later that night. So I'd simply taken the bus; and in a city as big as Los Angeles that's not exactly a smart thing to do when you have no idea where anything is, though a covert call to Voyager eventually helped me out somewhat.  
I stood briefly outside the archway and looked up at the sign; a child-like smile of awe and glee spreading across my feature.

"Walt Disney Studios." I stated softly cherishing this moment for as long as was wise; especially since the security guard was eyeing me curiously, unbeknownst to me a twinkle was in my eye. "Afternoon Mitch." I stated with a nod to the guard calmly strolling past the gate; seeing as how I'd taken note of his name tag discreetly, he eyed me in confusion. "Mister Disney is in today right; well I would hope so otherwise why would he call me down here? Just my luck I'd be watching my niece today." I added over my shoulder before ducking around the corner after a short wave goodbye; no sense in drawing too much attention to myself and if I acted as if I was expected, maybe even running a little late the guard might not actually question anything.  
He didn't call out to me in the slightest; and I could still see him slightly, he was smiling a little, but didn't pick up his security stations' phone. I sighed with audible relief; either he believed me, or he didn't think I'd cause any harm, probably thought I was some tourist eager for a private look around the studios.  
I didn't exactly know, but since he wasn't raising a fuss I paused to glance down at my charge who was smiling and drooling a little; I bent down with a tissue to wipe the mucus away.

"Looks like I have some skill with Jedi Mind-Tricks." I quipped with a light laugh; then I continued down Dopey Drive and began our personal tour of the studio, which looked much like I'd expect from the nineteen fifties and so on. I had a funny feeling that not too much had changed in this realities' version of the studio as opposed to our own, where if I'm not mistaken a lot of the old charm had been replaced with emotionless new office buildings.  
We took in all the sights; from the animation department to the old coloring building, which was still standing though not in use this particular day. Numerous employees stopped me on occasion; most of them who were women, but a few men and they were all taken with Naomi. I suppose it's true what they say; if you work for Disney you have to like kids, or at least enjoy their company.  
Around five-thirty, six O' clock; when it was close to the end of the work day around here I'd seen all I reasonably could, without drawing too much suspicion to myself. I was actually looking for a secluded room to signal a beam out; when something I should have been expecting happened.

"I pride myself on knowing almost everyone who works for this company, and you definitely do not." A voice stated from behind me; turning to face the man addressing me my eyes widened in total surprise, I hadn't actually thought he was at the studio. "Ah, I see how you got past security; is she yours?" He asked bending down to look in on the now sleeping Naomi.

"My niece." I replied easily recalling the lie I'd been using the past few hours, my voice faltered a little; he could turn me in to the cops for breaking and entering I supposed, which could complicate things for the crew.

"So you just wanted a tour then?" He wondered. "You are aware we have guided tours once a week; aren't you?" He added glancing back at me with a neutral expression on his face.

"Actually I wasn't aware of that." I admitted. "I'm sort of new in town; and to be honest I hardly imagine that tour to be as extensive as the one I just took Mister Disney." I added with a smile, he smiled as well shaking his head in exasperation.

"Most people don't get passed the front gates when they attempt this, I wonder why you did?" He mused perhaps awaiting an explanation.

"I'm not exactly sure myself; I think that Mitch fellow realized I was simply a harmless young man with a few delusions of grandeur." I returned thoughtfully. "And I did act like I was being expected; I'm afraid you were my alibi of sorts." I added with a sheepish smile; Mister Disney chuckled and shook his head once again, glancing down at my watch I realized that it was impossible to get back to the ship now, but that didn't stop me from trying. "I really have to go now; my… Ah, sister is expecting us back home in an hour." I stated turning pointedly to leave.

"I really should report you to the authorities, but you haven't done any real harm I suppose." He paused glancing around for something, when he found it he pulled out a pen and scribbled his signature down on the piece of loose leaf he'd picked up from a nearby desk. "Since you did come all this way without any ill intentions or cameras, I guess you deserve something to remember your visit. In the future however I would suggest going through the proper channels Mister." He paused yet again glancing back up at me pointedly.

"Desrochers, Alain Desrochers." I offered extending my hand, he shook it with a friendly smile and handed me the scrap of paper.

"Perhaps I'll see you here again someday." He remarked before turning and heading back through the door he'd come from; I smiled at that remark and quickly slipped into the large supply closet nearby.

"Ensign Desrochers to Voyager; Two to beam back." I whispered into the communicator.

"Negative Ensign; our transporters aren't operating at full power yet." Ensign Kims' voice returned with a sigh; I took that in stride.

"Figures." I muttered to myself. "In that case I'll try to find the other members of the away team." I returned having a small idea where I could at least meet up with Tuvok and Tom Paris.

"Just keep that baby safe; Samantha is about ready to murder you and the Captain for letting Naomi off the ship." Kim returned before severing our link.

"Well Naomi; looks like we're stuck until the end of the larger adventure." I whispered to the sleeping baby. "I hope you can keep a secret." I added before promptly smashing the communicator, which was far from easy; I had to use three of the heaviest boxes I could lift. "I'm afraid I don't want to disrupt continuity too much and a working communicator will complicate matters a little, if I remember my Star Trek trivia correctly." I added slipping the broken pieces into my pocket and casually emerging from the closet; time to get off the studio lot and start looking for Tom and Tuvok, and more specifically that archaic van they'd be driving around with Miss Robinson aboard.

_

* * *

The city looked different at night; Paris thought as he drove the old van down the street, Tuvok was examining the communicator while the woman sat glaring in the back; finally Tuvok seemed to give up._

"The transtators were disrupted by that energy weapon." Tuvok reported. "Our communicators are useless." He added putting the device away at last; Tom was clearly displeased, first all of that weirdness had gone down with their new friend and unknown assailant. And now they couldn't even report to the Captain or the ship.

"That means we can't call the…" He began to complain before remembering their guest. "Our friends." He quickly covered. "What do we do now?"

"You're gonna take a right at the next light and a left at the taco stand; 'Cause you're taking me home." Their new female companion informed annoyance tingeing her tone. "And you're not keeping the van." She added semi-haughtily.

"I am afraid that is not possible Miss Robinson; your life may be in danger." Tuvok pointed out in typical Vulcan fashion.

"I'm going to pop this hatch and I'm gonna start screaming until you tell me what's going on." She returned angrily; Tom mentally sighed, _why did he always have to get into these situations._ "Who are you? What is that thing in orbit? Why is that guy trying to kill us?" She demanded.

"I told you we're secret agents." Tom reminded sticking to the cover story.

"I'm opening the hatch." She stated accompanying her words of frustration with actions.

"Look; we saved your life, isn't it obvious we're on your side?" Tom exclaimed doing his best to keep his eyes on the road; the woman pouted with frustration.

"I'm standing up." She growled. "I'm taking a deep breath." She added a little louder as she once again put actions to words.

"Rain you are not gonna scream!" Tom cried out his window. "Now I know you're frightened; and you've seen some pretty strange things, but you have to trust me." He added doing his best to calm the woman down; _why wasn't Tuvok giving him a hand anyway._ "We're not gonna hurt you; and I will explain everything, it's either that or take your chances with the guy that tried to vaporize you!" He added sticking his head out the window once more in brief; she glanced around concernedly as she recalled her attacker and resumed her seat.

"The UFO; what is it?" She demanded leaning forward; Tom eyed her briefly searching for a reasonable excuse.

"It's a… Soviet spy satellite; part of a massive KGB operation, we're trying to stop it." He replied defeated; Tuvok eyed him curiously, the choice of deception was not very practical.

"Soviet." Rain repeated disbelievingly. "The U.S.S.R broke up five years ago; the KGB doesn't even exist anymore." She added; _just how dumb did they think she was, honestly she kept up with world events._

"That's what they'd like you to think." Tom shot back grasping upon the only stereotypical response he could find.

"Perhaps we've told her enough. For now." Tuvok finally ventured an opinion; Rain turned her attentions to the other man.

"What about you agent Tuvok; what's up with those ears?" She demanded; the two shared a brief concerned look. "Thought I didn't notice; I did. What about your weapons; what are they, lasers?" She continued obviously finding the right things to say to get under their skin.

"I'm sorry; that information is classified, and as for my ears… They are a family trait." Tuvok returned calmly.

"He's very sensitive about them." Tom added jokingly; Rain sighed exasperatedly.

"Whatever." She moaned before slumping back into her seat defeated at last.

"We must find a way to contact our… Friends." Tuvok stated pointedly; Tom glanced at him briefly uncertain as to how to pull that off, suddenly something hit the side of the van. He pulled to a stop afraid of what he might discover; a young man with a stroller strolled calmly up to the drivers' side from the shoulder.

"You know it's impossible to get a ride in this town." He quipped good naturedly.

"Al; are we glad to see you, quick give Tuvok your communicator." Tom exclaimed; Al looked nervously between the crewmen and reached into his pocket, holding up a small pile of broken parts.

"After Harry told me I was…" He paused noting the intense interest the young woman seemed to be having in their conversation. "Stuck without a ride; I kind of, lost my head." He explained sheepishly. "A tractor trailer ran over it."

"Oh great." Tom groaned slamming the steering wheel; Al shrugged careful to hide his small smile and headed around to the opposite side of the van. He hopped in after putting the stroller with Naomi inside and proceeded to secure the infant; using the top half of the stroller, which doubled as a baby seat.

"We shall need to find another way to contact our friends then." Tuvok stated the obvious; Tom rolled his eyes and resumed driving, Rain eyed this newcomer curiously.

"You're with them?" She asked incredulously.

"Is there something wrong with that?" He wondered smiling widely; Rain shook her head and simply settled back for the ride, Al was grinning like the Cheshire cat as he gently covered the still sleeping form of Naomi with his jacket.

"I hardly think James Bond would be running around with an agent who had a baby." He heard Rain mumble beneath her breath and his smile widened even further as he double checked to make sure his phaser was secure.

* * *

I woke up with a stiff neck; an uncomfortable cramp and a rather disoriented feeling, fortunately the cries of the hungry Naomi managed to snap me into full alert. Sighing softly I gently picked her out of the stroller combo baby seat and fetched her bottle, glad I'd had the foresight to bring the supplies along; Sam was going to kill me when we got back to the ship.  
Tom and Rain were sitting at the picnic table outside; the former working with our communicators, the latter eyeing him suspiciously. They were talking to each other and I rolled my eyes; this kind of nonsense always bugged me about temporal paradoxes, and this was my first time being a part of one.

"There we go little bit." I remarked as Tuvok joined us with breakfast; I was grateful I was with them actually; it had cost me practically everything I'd gotten prior to transport just to get from Disney studios to where I'd finally met up with Tom last night. And man was I starving; slipping out of the van I joined them, Rain eyed me curiously.

"So why are you two along?" She wondered smiling at Naomi; I chuckled and burped the Ktarian girl now that she'd finished.

"Would you believe I'm not with them?" I wondered jokingly; Tom offered me a meal and I took it hungrily.

"Al and Naomi here are part of the… Team." Tom stated with a grin. "Temporarily of course." He added confidentially.

"I am concerned about the child's presence; if we were attacked again it puts her at some level of risk." Tuvok pointed out; trust the Vulcan to drag that little argument back up, I nodded thoughtfully as I swallowed.

"Relax; we'll stay out of trouble, besides you can't exactly leave us anywhere." I returned sagely; the Vulcan nodded. We all ate in silence then; Naomi squirmed in my grip and I smiled disarmingly at the little girl, she burbled back at me and Rain chuckled.

"You're good with that kid." She remarked; I shrugged.

"It's a gift." I returned; before returning to my meal, Naomi was happy, I was happy, nothing was going to cause us problems today.

* * *

Much later we were sitting in the van watching and waiting for Starling to show up; I was a little worried for Naomi's safety, after all my presence much earlier had caused events to play out differently.  
But just so long as I didn't try to confront the egocentric entrepreneur; it should be ok, ah there was Starling now. And if memory served the Doctor would be with him. And there was Rain with her attempt at coercion; naturally it was a dismal failure, everything was about to hit the fan.  
Naomi began to cry as if sensing the tension; I gently rocked her trying to calm her down, glancing back out the window I caught a glimpse of Rain running from Starlings' limo. I sighed a little trying to calm Naomi further; it wasn't until Starling's limo took off that she finally calmed down, suddenly the door slid open revealing the Doctor.

"I see you're just as involved as usual." He observed sounding more exuberant then I remember; I shrugged.

"What can I say Doc; I get around." I returned with a chuckle.

* * *

"I've gone out with guys who have disappeared into thin air on the first date." Rain began shortly after while we were on the road.

"I assume she's speaking figuratively." The Doc returned eliciting a smirk from me; boy was it getting cramped in here though.

"But I have never; actually seen it happen." She continued unabated. "And you; mister leisure suit." She added glancing back at the Doc.

"There's a name I hadn't considered." He remarked sarcastically causing me to laugh openly, though quietly.

"That guy punched you a bunch of times; you should have a black eye, or a swollen lip, a broken nose." She rattled on; the Doctor looked almost like he could be enjoying this.

"Try to relax; you appear to be… Hallucinating." He returned hesitantly; Rain looked highly annoyed, or in the least used to our false answers. Hard to see her face from all the way back here; _just how did I get stuck in the rear most seat anyway?_

"Oh; is that what I am, I'm hallucinating." Rain remarked in an overbearing tone.

"Rain; I'm sorry you got dragged into all of this." Tom apologized; I shifted Naomi's position once again cursing the lack of child seat placements now that Doc Brown was along, she cooed slightly and gripped my finger eliciting a smile. Suddenly a phone rang; Tuvok removed our cobbled together communicator, slash modified telephone.

"Tuvok here." He answered.

"Tuvok; we've got Starling, but we've lost contact with Chakotay and Torres. Their shuttle went down over Arizona; Mister Kim is transmitting the co-ordinates to your tricorder, I want you to find them." The Captain informed then ordered; Tuvok nodded, good thing Rain couldn't hear the Captain over the phone like I could, _I must remember to thank Xena for instilling the art of listening to my surroundings._

"Aye Captain; Tuvok out." The Vulcan returned before hanging up; this little road trip was actually enjoyable on some levels, after all I'd been cooped up aboard Voyager for months without access to the Holodecks except for classes.

"Mister Starling is under control." Tuvok informed Paris; pausing momentarily to note the Doctors' eavesdropping presence. "I suggest you return to Chronowerx and continue the business there; the Doctor and I must make our way to Arizona." He added before both of them leaned back into their seats; the Doctor looking highly pleased with being included in the mission, I on the other hand wondered who I'd be tagging along with.

* * *

"I strongly advise against this." Tuvok stated as I sat in the back of the car they'd procured for us. "Your presence could jeopardize our mission." He pointed out.

"I'd rather stick it out with you two then deal with more questions from the infallible Miss Robinson." I shot back exasperatedly.

"I would rather have Ensign Desrochers and Naomi with us." The Doctor interjected. "I wouldn't trust him with her safety gallivanting off with Mister Paris."

"I resent that." I grumbled before noticing the shuttle; _kind of convenient that we could make it in such a short time,_ Tuvok stopped the car and climbed out.

"Please remain in the automobile." He stated eyeing me pointedly. "Doctor; if you would come with me." He added; the Doctor grinned eagerly and hopped out, I settled back down and gently soothed the squirming Naomi.

"It's ok little bit; we'll have you back to your mom in no time." I stated softly; the sounds of weapons' fire distracted me and I removed my phaser, as a precautionary measure. I needn't have worried; Tuvok beckoned me to the shuttle, I gathered our supplies and joined the group.

"I see you've found a use for your talents." B'Elanna remarked sounding a little upset; considering she'd been tied up for an indefinite amount of time I wasn't surprised.

"Give us a hand with these repairs." Chakotay requested; I set Naomi gently into the stroller and picked up one of the tools, at least I'd covered some of this stuff in engineering class.

* * *

We worked swiftly and soon had a functional means off this rock; first of all we had to deal with Starling and the time ship though, it wouldn't be long now. Chakotay took the piloting station and flew us towards Paris' location; I was stuck holding Naomi yet again, but at least she was safer on the shuttle then in a car.  
We swooped down like a bird of prey; the view outside appearing rather dire, the phasers screamed and the cab of the truck exploded.

"Chakotay to Paris; what's your status?" The first officer inquired via com; I knew he was fine though, after all he hadn't been near the truck.

"We're fine; good shooting." Tom returned in a semi-joking manner; I chuckled, this beat watching the episodes on T-V, I was living the ultimate Trek fan's dream.

"Wasn't there supposed to be a time ship in that truck?" B'Elanna asked as her station alerted her to a new development. "I'm scanning the debris." She stated after a brief moment of silent fear.

"It was a temporal transponder; set to give off tachyon signals." Chakotay exclaimed opening a link to Voyager. "Chakotay to Voyager; the time ships' not here Captain, it was a ruse. Starling's going to launch from a different site." He reported; I let out a sigh, _you know access to future knowledge can be a major pain; _I was beginning to miss the amnesia I'd had on Xena's world. At least I didn't treat them like a glorified television show brought to life; perhaps there was a way to at least avoid becoming so involved with people, or at least the primary missions of the show.

* * *

After reclaiming Paris we returned to Voyager and my official standing as away team member, useless away team member I might add; ended. I had a special charge to return home, Sam was definitely going to be upset with me; as long as she didn't take away my babysitting privileges I could live with her ire.

"There you are; I've been so worried." Ensign Wildman exclaimed taking Naomi from me; I smiled nervously at that shifting positions outside the entrance to her quarters.

"Sorry about that Sam, but the Captain wanted me on the mission." I apologized; she shot me a sympathetic look and reached out a hand to squeeze my shoulder.

"I don't blame you or the Captain, but you know you could have always left her with Neelix." She pointed out; I shook my head.

"I am a man of my word Ensign Wildman; I do not abandon my duties." I stated adopting a colder stance as I slipped mentally and literally back into my warrior persona; she smiled softly and once again kissed my cheek in a show of friendship, I cracked at that and smiled with audible relief.

"Would you care to join us for lunch?" She wondered; I shook my head as I examined my sweat stained clothing.

"I'm afraid not; I've got to get cleaned up, besides you should enjoy her company by yourself for a while." I insisted with a gentle smile before taking my leave; I made my way to my own quarters and a much needed sonic shower, pointedly ignoring the sudden shaking of the ship as Starling's last hurrah played out.

To Be Continued: **Ok; before I get chewed out for all of this semi-fluffness, let me just say one thing in my own defense... How could you not like reading about Alain and Naomi together? I mean; he's got such a way with her and she's so cute and adorable.  
Ok; now that, that's out of the way let me just add, I know this chapter is a little bland. The whole point of it wasn't to get Al involved with another big action type scene, where he'd leap in use his primitive teachings to beat the crap out of Starling and stop the events of the episode from playing out as they were intended. It was meant to allow me to add in a little creative plot twist; live out my dream, at least fictionally, of seeing Walt Disney Studios; and show off that Al likes watching Naomi and takes his duty of keeping her safe and looking out for her very seriously.  
A fact that plays out in certain other chapters; although Alain Desrochers is still being trained for a destiny he is not fully aware of yet I wanted to give him a more personable look, instead of being the typical hero who selflessly throws himself into any dangerous situation he's a tad more cautious. He doesn't have all the answers yet; and he's also eventually going to wind up a family man himself and giving him some experience as such is fun to write about.  
If you were hoping for another action packed thrill of your life chapter; well I'm sorry. If you don't appreciate that Al's presence really served no purpose on this away team mission; well I can't argue with you there, this time it did serve no actual purpose to throw him in, although it did give him some away team experience.**

**Anyway I've gone on long enough; I think you'll enjoy the next chapter, because our intrepid hero will get to meet the irrascible one himself and you know things are going to go from bad to wrose when Q takes a personal, vested interest in your life. If this chapter dissapointed you in any way; the next one should make up for it a little, at least I hope.**


	6. Chapter Six: Back to the Past?

**Edit; Author's Notes:** I've added a couple of new scenes to this; it has been brought to my attention that I tend to gloss over the rest of the crew, not to mention I seem to write too much from Al's perspective and neglect to include other perspective from secondary characters. If you're wondering why I created these entirely new scenes instead of simply using pre-established scenes from the episode Al was partially taking part in, well there are two reasons.  
The first is I no longer have access to the box sets; and another friend of mine pointed out that I have a tendancy to go towards the extreme when sticking with continuity; so rather then muck about and incorporate new scenes I decided to simply focus on Al's core group of friends, which is reason two... They don't get much fleshing out in either the series or most of this story, half the time you don't see them with Al they're just relegated back to the ranks of invisible crew. So I decided to add more scenes written from their perspective; including a few personal logs to try and build them up and get a better feel for their character. I hope it enhances the story rather then subtracts from it; oh and yes I am aware of the inconsistancies involving the timeline of this chapter, but what the hell a lot of Star Trek episodes wind up with pretty messed up timelines because of all that time travel jazz, so why not this fanfic?

**Author's Notes:** Normally I'd hold off on updating for a day, but Agent-G's review clearly indicates that some people did not like that last chapter; or may not like that last chapter once they get the chance to read it. For that I must appologize; however I'm not about to re-write the entire chapter just because some people might have problems with certain parts of it or stuff.  
In order to make it up to my loyal readers I update with this new chapter and apologize for my story a little; hey I never said my writing would be enjoyed by everybody all the time, I can't promise that. That whole Disney thing was more of something personal; I'm a big Disney fan and I happen to have aspirations of one day working for them in some capacity, so I guess it would be rather pointless to people who don't know me personally. As for other concerns adressed by my loyal reviewer; this chapter may help shed a few misconceptions concerning that last chapter, if anything it might even bring your interests back ten fold, because not only is Q involved, but there's a special guest or two.  
Actually; this new scene is a complete addition, it was not in the original rough draft or even the first "Final Draft" version of the story, I just created it this morning after reading Agent-G's review. It does nothing to destroy established history; and it even helps add a little bridging between this section of the story and the last.  
So; without any further ado, and hopefully another few days before I update again so I can give other readers the chance to read everything and hopefully review my story, I give you chapter six.

* * *

Personal Log; Supplemental, Life aboard Voyager continues unabated. I still find it difficult not to consider this a television series; however with friends like the Delaney's, Samantha and Ensign Kim it's somewhat easier.  
I've been recently undergoing duty shift training in other sections of the ship; to further my education, working in everything from security to stellar cartography. A few duty shifts have even been in the mess hall; under Neelix's heavy suggestion I've reluctantly been adopted as a protégé of sorts. I'm not as good a cook as he is unfortunately, but when he's on away missions for the Captain he would rather trust his kitchen in the care of someone he trusts; I am just his newest student, not his first.  
Oh dear; it's almost time for my next duty shift… Computer end recording…

* * *

I was going to be late for my duty shift at this rate; first the ship bucks around while I'm in the shower and now this, stupid turbo lift has to get stuck. Finally it resumed traveling and I arrived on the bridge; everyone has to take a duty shift on the bridge once in a while. Today I was learning how to operate Ensign Kims' station; he glanced up as I strode over to the station. 

"Sorry I'm late." I apologized.

"It's ok; you've been fully briefed?" He asked; I nodded and took up position in front of the console.

"I spent all morning reviewing the manuals." I returned; he nodded and made his way to the turbo lift.

"I'll be in the mess hall getting lunch if you need anything." He called. "Good luck." He added with a wink before vanishing into the glorified elevator; I sighed slightly, _why did I have to get today as my duty shift? Especially with Q running around trying to convince Janeway of his intentions._

"Bridge to Janeway; you'd better come in here Captain." Chakotay suddenly called via com; I'd been so engrossed in my own thoughts I'd forgotten to pay attention, quickly I began to activate my stations' equipment and ran the necessary procedures customary of this station.

"Report." The Captain ordered emerging from her ready room.

"You're not going to believe this Captain, but another star in this cluster just went super nova." Chakotay revealed just as I confirmed his words with my equipment; I briefly noted Q's presence on the bridge, but dismissed it out of turn. "It's point zero two light years from our current position." He added even as my station went off; alerting me to another nova, one I'd actually been expecting.

"Make that two super novas' commander." I called out ignoring Q's proximity to me; while sub-consciously reciting Harrys' lines from this show, it just seemed appropriate for some reason rather then adlibbing my own. "I just picked up another one at two one seven mark four seven." I elaborated reading the numbers off the readouts with a brief hint of difficulty; I still wasn't too clear on stellar positioning and the like compared to the old Earth terminologies of Miles, Kilometers and even Feet. "Estimated time of implosion, sixty-seven seconds." I added feeling highly annoyed with Q hovering over my shoulder.

"Get us out of here Tom." The Captain ordered turning back to the helm.

"I can't." He returned. "The sub-space shockwave from the star is collapsing the warp field." He informed; I smirked slightly at that, Shockwave was such an odd thing to say in context of a super nova, then again my Transformers Fanboy mentality probably just picked up on it for some reason.

"Red alert." Janeway ordered. "Tuvok increase power to the shields; Tom lay in a course away from that shockwave, maximum impulse." She continued making her way up from the center of the bridge; I rolled my eyes, it was an effort of futility.

"Like that'll help." I muttered under my breath. "It's all the fault of the ruddy civil war in the Q continuum." I continued forgetting briefly my witness; Q was close enough to hear my muttered words and he eyed me suspiciously.

"A star going super nova occurs once every century in this galaxy; now we're about to witness our third in less then three days, all in the same sector." Janeway began as she passed me and moved to confront Q who was no longer regarding me; I glanced briefly at the confrontation, _this is the angle Kim originally saw in the episode.  
_Curious that I would assume his role this one time; perhaps the one who sent me here manipulated events so I would take his place for some reason I couldn't begin to fathom. "Why do I suspect you have something to do with this?" She openly demanded; how intuitive of her.

"She may be a member of an intellectually challenged species, but she's right." The female Q remarked from her position; I took the opportunity to eye her briefly, curious as I was to see if her appearance matched the show much as Q resembled John De Lancie. "You're irresponsible behavior is continuing to have cosmic consequences." She accused.

"Will you stop overreacting." Q shot back; this was getting a little confusing now, I decided I'd refer to the female Q as Queenie so I wouldn't get a headache. "Always nagging; now you see why I left her." He added sulkily.

"Are you causing these super novas?" Janeway demanded; Q looked a tad evasive of all things.

"Well; not exactly." He returned evasively.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The Captain demanded; boy was she getting aggressive, Q sure knew how to push Starfleet Captains' buttons.

"It's no use Captain; the shockwave is too fast for us." Tom suddenly called out; snapping out of my sideline viewing mentality I quickly got back to work, and here I thought I could avoid this.

"Try evasive maneuvers." She returned.

"I'm afraid a course correction will be futile Captain; there are now three distinct shockwaves heading towards us on various trajectories, it will be impossible to avoid them all." Tuvok reported from tactical; that couldn't be any good, and I was still a novice at working these controls.

"Divert auxiliary power to the shields." She ordered me; I somehow managed to comply despite my low skill level, those technical manuals must be more helpful then I thought. "You have the ability to get us out of here; so do it." She ordered Q.

"Sixteen seconds to impact." Chakotay called from his position still near the helm. "I'm not sure if the shields will hold." He added.

"Ah; Harry, now would be a good time to come back." I murmured to myself desperately trying to figure out another way to augment the shield arrays without disrupting life support or critical systems.

"Do something Q." Janeway commanded marching straight up to the man; if he really was a man that is, or what could normally be classified as such.

"Well." He stated. "If you insist." He added before flashing out with the Captain; I cried out, that flash was brighter then I'd been expecting. It really put the effects of the show to shame; and my proximity didn't help matters, I'd been blinded.

"That two timing toad." Queenie exclaimed; I couldn't see a damn thing so I stopped working and turned my head to the side, this was not a good time to lose one of my five senses.

"Contact with the first shockwave within three seconds Commander." Tuvok reported; I could sense a presence beside me, hands began to fly over my console.

"Good thing I turned around when the ship started shakin' huh?" Harry's unmistakable voice whispered close by; I sighed with audible relief as I felt another presence suddenly close in.

"All hands brace for impact." Chakotay ordered; soft feminine hands guided me to my station so that I could hold on, this was going to get bumpy.

* * *

I groaned slightly as I caught snatches of conversation; Ensign Kim's voice could be heard, I still couldn't see anything; and to top it all off I'd fallen to the floor. Everything rushed back on me in a moment; the super novas, Q, the confrontation with Captain Janeway and that blinding bright flash, someone knelt over me. 

"Are you ok?" An unfamiliar woman's voice asked.

"I can't see." I replied fearfully; I didn't know what was wrong with my eyes, but I sure as hell didn't want to be blind for the rest of my life, the woman I couldn't see helped me to my feet.

"Ensign Caplain; escort Ensign Desrochers to sickbay." Tuvok ordered; the person beside me led me into the turbo lift and I heard nothing further concerning events on the bridge.

* * *

Unbeknownst to young Alain Desrochers; although he had put aside his past exploits in the universe of Xena Warrior Princess, those involved with him there had not forgotten him. Still watching over him were a few Gods and Goddesses who just couldn't leave well enough alone; in point of fact one particular Goddess had done a little manipulating on a recent away mission of his to further study him while he was being more or less himself and not the dapper hero she knew. 

"Why hello Athena; still observing that delicious young man I see." A voice remarked startling her from her thoughts; she turned and was pleasantly surprised to find Diana standing before her.

"Sister Diana; it has been too long since you last graced Olympus, what brings you here?" She asked smiling secretively. "As if I didn't know."

"Brother Ares did me a favor when he introduced us; I just can't stop thinking about him, about what he is destined to accomplish." Diana admitted softly as she moved to join her sister in observing the mortal; despite the great effort it required. "Do you really think he can pull it off?" She wondered.

"I know many things, but even I can not be certain of that." Athena returned with a slight sigh; Diana turned to say something when a great billowing flash lit up the area, standing before them appeared a man with brown hair and a Starfleet uniform. Athena smirked upon seeing him; knowing that it would only be a matter of time before he made his appearance.

"I see you've finally detected his presence; and by extension our own eyes and ears." She remarked slyly.

"I must admit I wasn't expecting this." Q returned tugging at his uniform's waistline. "I've never known the two of you to be so; interested in some paltry little man before." He added examining his uniform for traces of dust or lint; as usual there were none, but Q had so long been studying humans and their behavior that he tended to adopt their mannerisms.

"You mean **she** didn't tell you?" Diana asked incredulously; Q shook his head dismissively.

"Of course she did, what kind of person do you take me for." He shot back haughtily. "But if I'm supposed to be furthering his training I can't have you mucking about with the good Captain and her personal beliefs. You may have gotten away with getting him off that ship with that baby, but I have it on good authority that any further stunts to… Meddle; and you'll be facing serious charges." He stated smiling slyly; Athena sighed.

"I couldn't help myself; the child looks so good with him, I just had to see him in a friendly environment." She returned; Q nodded.

"Perfectly understandable; I found it quite informative myself and have certain plans to further the young man's parenting skills, but I can't be expected to do my job properly when so many entities keep interfering… Bad enough Ares played his own little game just so he could get his jollies off watching him fighting that giant cave dweller, we don't want to damage him again now do we?" Q asked pointedly referring to when the young man was forced into two separate souls, one being the kind hearted individual he still was today; the other becoming a powerful self-proclaimed Chaos God, a currently deceased self-proclaimed Chaos God.

"All right; we shall cease our meddling, however it would be nice to still keep an eye on him, he's so yummy." Diana spoke up licking her lips lustfully; Q rolled his eyes in secret and chose to ignore the obvious attempt to rattle him, this was why he made it a point never to get involved with alternate reality deities.

"You can still watch, but no touching." Q returned wagging a finger in a veiled attempt at a threat; he knew he could no more kill one of these Goddesses as they couldn't do anything to harm him. "And do something about Ares will you; I do not need or want a repeat of that last incident." He requested with a slight sigh; Athena bowed her head slightly acknowledging his request, and then with a snap of his fingers Q was gone leaving two rather disappointed Goddesses in his wake.

"And that was the only fun I've had in ages." Diana admitted with a wistful sigh. "Oh well; he is out of our jurisdiction now, so to speak." She added grinning slightly as she watched the young man being led to sickbay.

"I wonder what Q's got planned though?" Athena mused smiling slightly. "He always does have a way with those humans of his." She added her smile widening; Diana grinned and offered a shrug.

"I don't know, but it's going to be good." She stated with certainty; Athena dismissed the images for now and decided it was time to resume her own duties, besides she had the rather vainglorious task of informing her dear brother as to Q's demands.

* * *

"You shouldn't have looked directly at him; that's the first rule in the Starfleet training manual when it comes to dealings with the Q." Ensign Caplain remarked casually as we journeyed down the corridor on our way to Sickbay, I could tell by her voice she was at least a pretty woman; and human, she had a strong European style accent, reminiscent of Greece. 

"I'll remember that the next time he inevitably shows up." I returned with a soft smile doing my best to ignore the inky black darkness of non-sight; what I wouldn't give for Athena to show up right about now and give me another of her healing kisses, or something like that.

"We're here." She alerted as the doors opened; she led me inside and over to one of the biobeds, she was surprisingly gentle for someone who should have been annoyed with me. "Doctor our young friend here has had a rather nasty first encounter with the Q." She called out.

"I see; as usual it's up to me to cure those who lack the common sense to cover their eyes." He muttered as I sensed rather then saw his presence moving towards me.

"Funny Doc; you ever try to break into comedy?" I shot back with a small snarl; I could tell he was frowning slightly.

"Thank you Ensign Caplain that will be all." He stated dismissing the kind woman. "Kes; if you would please help calm the patient, his constant fidgeting is making it difficult to treat him." He added; I couldn't help it, my natural instinct was to turn my head in whichever direction I thought the owner of the voices' I heard was standing. It didn't help that he kept moving around the biobed as he scanned me; I think he was trying to run some kind of special ocular exam, but I couldn't be sure.

"Hello Al; Ensign Wildman tells me she needs a babysitter for oh nine hundred tomorrow." Kes remarked her voice indicative of a smile; gentle hands took hold of my cheeks and held my face still.

"That's better." The Doc muttered as the tricorder hummed.

"What exactly happened?" Kes wondered curiously; I smiled briefly a harsh chuckle of despair escaping before I could fully control myself.

"I was looking directly at Q when he flashed out with Captain Janeway in tow." I explained the darkness seeming to lighten marginally as I spoke.

"Oh dear." The Doc remarked startling me with his near imitation of a certain protocol droid from another great sci-fi franchise. "I trust Commander Chakotay is devising some form of stratagem for retrieving her." He added.

"Oh I think he is; though don't quote me on that, future knowledge and all." I reminded as the darkness became more of an inky black with the occasional indistinct shape.  
"What exactly happened?" I wondered curiously. "I've never known this to happen whenever Q shows up and I've seen a lot of episodes, like when the Enterprise first encountered him at Farpoint." I revealed; figuring it couldn't harm anything if I mentioned my extensive knowledge of past events.

"Twenty-fourth century humans have a lot more resilient optic nerves due to the nature of the technology they work with every day; as such they've evolved a sort of natural immunity to intensely bright lights, at least in certain respects." The Doctor began to explain. "You on the other hand have had no formal training in this matter; as such your ocular nerve endings have been completely scrambled and the signals from your brain aren't getting through." He revealed. "Fortunately it is simple to correct."

"For your brilliant program no doubt." I remarked sarcastically; Kes stifled a laugh and I smiled at a sudden notion. "You know Doc; I think you'd get along quite well with a certain character I know, like you he's extremely confident in his abilities and enjoys bragging." I added with a mischievous smirk.

"I beg your pardon Ensign; I do not brag." He shot back haughtily; by now I could discern basic colors and shapes, Kes was now looking to be a rather attractive blur and her proximity was unfortunately affecting my hormone driven body, fortunately I had experience in ignoring such physical urgings.

"Forgive me; you're a Doctor, not a gossipmonger." I quipped delighting in the open laughter Kes was sharing; I enjoyed causing mirth in others when I could, and I especially enjoyed hearing people laugh. "I still think you and Sky Linx would get along swimmingly though." I added mischievously.

"Who or what is a Sky Linx?" The Doc asked; Kes was still having a hard time controlling herself, but her curiosity was clear on her face… _HEY! I can see again._

"Forget about it Doc; and as for you Kes, what a welcome sight for sore eyes." I paraphrased blinking now as my eyes began to water; induced by the rapid healing no doubt, she openly blushed a little at that and quickly removed her hands from my cheeks. "Oh sorry Kes; I didn't mean…" I trailed off uncertainly; it was hard to keep my feelings straight at times, Kes was merely a friend nothing more.

"It's ok; you're forgiven." She returned with a small smile. "I enjoy compliments." She added timidly; I chuckled at that and hopped off the bed as the Doc finished up.

"As good as new." He proclaimed. "As if there was ever a doubt." I laughed gaily at that; indeed Sky Linx would most likely get along with the good Doctor, both of them were overbearing and semi-egotistical when it came to their natural skills. Of course I wasn't about to introduce the Doc to any Autobots; even if I could figure out how to program holographic representations of the Transformers on the holodeck.

"Well; I'd better see about returning to my duty shift." I began before I felt a very senses shattering spinning and then I found myself in an open field next to several crewmen in Northern Union uniforms.

"Ensign Desrochers how did you get here; you were not on the bridge." Tuvok stated in usual Vulcan fashion.

"I haven't the faintest idea, but just how long was I in sickbay?" I wondered curiously.

"I would estimate no longer then thirty hours." Tuvok returned; my eyes opened in confusion at that.

"That doesn't make any damn sense." I muttered too low for anyone to actually hear; meanwhile the rest of the crew along with Queenie had already made their way further along, they were going to rescue the Captain from the 'Confederate' Qs'. _No time to figure out what's going on; I know it couldn't have been thirty hours,_ then again Tuvok's estimate seemed to contradict what I could remember from the episode. I don't recall it taking that long to modify the shields for Queenies' ploy in getting the Voyager bridge crew into the Continuum, but then again it had been some time since I last saw it.  
Shrugging aside my confusion I raced to catch up; unfortunately I was a tad late in rejoining the others and missed all the action, therefore in a second senses shattering spin cycle I found myself surprisingly in my quarters back aboard Voyager.  
"Ok; now I'm really confused, why am I here and not on the bridge like the others?"

"Because you don't belong there." Queenie stated seated casually behind my desk; she was wearing the typical Starfleet uniform complete with Admiral markings and she was reading my personal logs.

"You knew exactly what was going on; and it took us a little while to figure out how, but then it came to us." Q added as he strode from the view port and over to my sword, which was hanging on the wall. "Interesting; if not exorbitantly primitive." He remarked casually.

"We're responsible for your loss of time." Queenie elaborated. "We took you from Sickbay rather then from a later period and inserted you into the commando party; what a pitiful term for such a highly complex mission." She added more to herself then to me.

"You're from sometime in Q's future… Both Q's." I stated figuring out that these two Q weren't exactly the same as the ones' I'd met however briefly back on the bridge.

"Quite intuitive." Queenie congratulated. "For a primitive bipedal simian." She added by way of insult; I shot her a glare at that.

"Now; now my dear, this human is even more remarkable then you might realize." Q revealed with a grin and a twinkle in his eye. "Oh yes; we can expect great things of him." He added sounding almost like Ollivander from Harry Potter.

"Why do I not like the sound of that?" I groaned as Q flashed from the wall over to my bed; he sat cross-legged in the lotus position and was wearing leather armor reminiscent of Ares.

"Are we not sending him back home then?" Queenie asked with a tiny pout.

"Now where's the fun in that?" Q returned with a mischievous smile. "No; this young man will prove quite the amusement." He added before Queenie flashed over to him; now wearing something only Athena could get away with, she'd even caused her physical appearance to change slightly her breasts ballooning larger to fill out the armor better.

"We'll be keeping a careful eye on you dear boy." She remarked with a seductive look in her eyes; her words however gave me a feeling of impending doom and I shuddered at the mental thought of what that could exactly mean.

"Quite right; you my young friend need some very special guidance, and we're just the ones' to give it." Q added eyeing me with a pointed stare that seemed to lack any playfulness; he was being totally serious for once, a rarity indeed when concerning this particular representative of the continuum.

"Why don't I like where this is going?" I asked echoing my previous statement; Queenie chuckled lightly her laughter tinkling among the air, sounding forced and not entirely her own.

"We'll be back every now and again to test what you've learned." Q stated; and before I could even say anything in defense of that he was gone along with Queenie, I groaned yet again and flopped onto the now vacant bed.

"My life has just gotten further complications." I muttered before remembering that Sam needed a babysitter; of course that had been a good thirty hours or so ago, _God I hate time travel worse then paradoxes; especially when I'm the only one experiencing it._

* * *

Time is a constantly changing variable; while Alain Desrochers has experienced the loss of a good thirty hours, things happened during that time he was not privy too. Chakotay and most of the crew worked tirelessly to complete the necessary modifications given to them by the female Q; Al could no more turn back the clock and bear witness to these events than any mortal could.

However events did still occur; so let us turn back the clock and bear witness to some of these events, events that may or may not have repercussions later on in the course of this adventure.

Jenny left stellar cartography with a tiny sigh; she'd been hearing a lot of rumors down here concerning what was going on, on the bridge and she really didn't know who to believe. If only she could find Al; he always seemed to have some idea what was going on, but then again he was from a reality that featured her life and the lives of everyone aboard this ship in some sort of television series.

It felt just a little too convenient that he would have come from such a place, but perhaps that was the point; she didn't know much about the man, he really didn't share his past life experiences with the rest of the crew not even his friends. But he did enjoy spending time with them; in fact he'd sometimes requested a change in duty shift that would allow him to work in stellar cartography during some of the dangerous situations the ship and her crew found itself in.

"Jenny; hey wait up!" The unmistakable voice of her twin sister cried from behind her; Jenny smiled as she turned around to face Megan, they had always been close and never really been separated. Sometimes she even felt as if she could read Megan's mind, but that was probably just her imagination; what she'd said once to Tom on one of their many double dates with Harry and Megan still held true. She wouldn't know what to do with herself if Megan was ever killed; and the same held true for her sibling.

"What's up?" She asked as Megan drew near; her sister flicked a stray strand of hair out of her face and shot her a warm smile.

"Want to find Al and get the info?" She wondered seemingly already knowing what Jenny had been thinking earlier.

"I don't know; most of the time we get him alone and ask he always brandies that stupid temporal prime directive excuse." Jenny complained; Megan smiled mischievously and nodded slightly.

"So what; this time I've got a wicked idea, he either tells us or…" She leaned in closer and whispered something into Jennys' ear; her eyes lit up and her cheeks flushed red with slight embarrassment.

"I couldn't possibly." She denied in a low tone; Megan shook her head.

"He'll never let it get that far; besides he's not the type to take advantage of a veiled threat like that." Megan stated confidently; Jenny tilted her head to one side still uncertain.

"Fine; I'll make it clear I'll do it myself." She stated rolling her eyes; Jenny shook her head.

"No; that's ok I'll play along." Jenny returned hesitantly. "He will tell us right; I might have a crush on him, but I'm not sure I'd take it that far just to get information." She added shyly; Megan giggled slightly and placed one arm around her sisters' shoulder steering her towards the nearest access terminal.

"I have a feeling he'll be too busy worrying about whether or not we'd carry out such a threat to even consider it." She stated confidently; Jenny smiled and allowed her sister to propel her onwards.

* * *

Kes was disturbed; she had the feeling she'd forgotten something, but she couldn't place it no matter how hard she tried. She distinctly remembered helping to treat Ensign Desrochers in sickbay; and yet she kept thinking he hadn't left in the natural way, but that couldn't be possible. Could it?

It had to be some trick of the mind; perhaps if she spoke with Tuvok she'd have a better understanding. Without warning the Delaney sisters sat down next to her taking her a little by surprised; Megan appeared calm and collected, Jenny however kept darting her eyes about the room as if searching for someone.

"Al's not answering his com badge; according to the computer he's locked himself in his quarters and won't come out." Megan informed sounding almost testy. "Just what the hell is he doing?" She demanded taking the Ocampa by surprise with the use of such a word; she hadn't thought the Delaney's were ones to curse.

"How am I expected to know?" She returned gently. "I'm not his keeper; what he wishes to do is his own choice, not mine." She added; Jenny sighed.

"It's not like him; I think something's wrong." She returned; Kes smiled bemusedly.

"So you know him that well then?" She wondered feeling strangely playful at the moment; shaking aside her own unease she took a sip of her drink and glanced briefly around the room at the gossiping crew, many still did not even suspect their captain had been kidnapped by Q.

"I'd like to think so." Jenny added with a dreamy smile; Kes could tell however that the young woman wasn't that interested in the Ensign, she had a way with sensing when someone held genuine feelings for someone else. Jenny Delaney may have some slight physical attraction to the man who helped save her, but it would never develop into anything more then the teasing level it was now.

"This is insane; didn't Sam say he was babysitting Naomi for her tonight?" Megan wondered; Kes shifted gazes to the other twin and nodded.

"He did agree to that, but if he's forgotten about that I'd better let Samantha know." She remarked; Jenny sighed and started to leave.

"Come on Megan; it's obvious we're not going to find anything out from him, maybe Harry will let us know what's going on." She remarked; Megan reluctantly agreed and took off after her sister, Kes smiled and took another sip of the drink she'd ordered. Ensign Desrochers had introduced it to her; and she found a distinct liking to it, she believed it was called a seven up, and it had a rather unique lemon like taste to it, though not bitter.

"I'd better let Neelix know he'll have to take over Ensign Desrochers' babysitting duties; I wonder why he'd suddenly become so secretive though?" She mused to herself; well there was no sense in trying to figure that man out at times, first things first glancing over to Neelix she smiled and requested that he come over.

* * *

Megan Delaney's Personal Log; Supplemental: Today was another one of those days; first the Captain gets' herself abducted by that Q person and then instead of letting us know the rest of the senior staff and bridge crew decides to keep things completely confidential.

We tried to weasel it out of Al, but for some reason he almost seemed to vanish for most of the day; not to mention yesterday when he was taking Harry's shift, but then had to go to sickbay. Trust the novice not to read up on Q protocols; poor man, I'd hate to have to go through that, complete loss of sight… It reminds me a little of that nice Geordi LaForge I met at the Academy; I wonder if he's still wearing that visor, or if he finally found something better to replace his lost eyesight?

Jenny and I still miss mom and dad sometimes; and lets' face it, the date potential on this ship is seriously lacking, Tom and Harry are the only ones who actively pursue us for our intelligence rather then our looks, at least that's what Tom once told me… Still I have a feeling he wasn't being entirely honest; God how is it that all men still seem to focus on the outward appearance instead of the inner beauty? Some days it makes me seriously contemplate switching over to the pursuit of women; I remember that day back when we were teenagers when Jenny and I got curious and went a little Bi… But that's not really important; God maybe I should delete that… No, no…

Al finally left his quarters once the Captain was rescued and things got back to normal; we tried to get him to tell us what was up, but all he said was something about slag, whatever that is, and seemed to complain about somebody called Primus and why couldn't he have at least had a Delorean. Which Tom informs me is some kind of automobile from the twentieth century; the reference escapes me though, what would he want with a car and how could it help explain what he was doing?

Seriously some days that man irks me to no end; I'm friends with the guy, but he doesn't let us know what half these strange references are supposed to be for, although once he did semi-inform us as to the nature… Something about Transformers and pop culture icons; _what is a pop culture icon?_ I asked, and he said something along the lines of… _it's a twentieth century concept that refers mostly to the entertainment world and its impact on everyday life._

I still didn't get it that much, but decided to drop it; we're a long ways off from the twentieth century… Actually I remember something about the ship being sent back in time by accident to nineteen ninety seven, at least I think that was the year.

That's when Al beamed down with Naomi; although we still don't know why the Captain would allow something like that and probably never will, I just try to forget about it for the most part.

Uh-oh; Jenny's back from her date with that annoying Tellerite of a man Patrick, God why did she ever agree to go out with him? Computer end recording…

To Be Continued: **Did I not promise Q goodness? Sorry if he seems out of character, but you must remember this is not Star Trek Voyager the T-V series; this is Star Trek Voyager reality. Although I'm not sure what Earth designation I'd give it if I was to give it one as I do for pretty much all the later Earth's Alain visits courtesy of Roma.  
Anyway; there was a lot of time displacement going on in this chapter so I hope I didn't confuse anyone, just to make it perfectly clear the Q and female Q first introduced to Al on the bridge of Voyager are not the same ones who confront him in his quarters later on. By which I mean they aren't from the exact same timeline; and despite what they told Al, it is painfully obvious from what Q says to Athena and Diana that he was well aware of Alain's presence long before formall introductions were made.  
Of course Al can't know that because he's not omnipotent or privy to everything going on in his life that doesn't directly affect him. Oh and in case you're wondering; the Q that spoke with Athena and Diana comes from a little further in the timeline then the Q that confronts him in his quarters... DAMN time travel within time travel is more complex and confusing then I thought possible; keeping it all straight is making my head spin. Is it any wonder I don't try to figure out the nuances behind temporal mechanics; not that they exist in reality, but whatever...  
Anyway; the next couple of chapters will most likely be further character driven chapters surrounding Al's friendships on Voyager, oh and there will be a bit of an interesting twist when that Macrovirus thing comes aboard. I never could stand the fact that in that episode the entire crew get's infected and falls sick, but the writers never once touch up on the fact that there was an infant aboard ship at the time. So yes; Naomi does return, I hope you don't come to think of her as the Dreaded Naomi.  
Too much talking; not enough action, man I'm sure glad later chapters and sections will have lot's more actiony stuff... At least I think so?**


	7. Chapter Seven: Enter New Threats

**Author's Notes:** Wow no more reviews; I guess I drove my reader away again, oh well perhaps other people will pick up this story and read & review. Hmmm; not much else to say here, except that we're about to start winding down. I'm afraid although I've built up a certain threat to Alain thanks to Q the pen ultimate conclusion of that particular development won't be occuring in this story. Nope; the stories featuring Alain Desrochers aboard Voyager will continue in the next exciting tale, so I'm afraid there's no big climactic fight scene in this one. After all it's only the beginning; if I used up all my ideas right away then Alain wouldn't have any fun, and you won't believe what's going to happen once Seven joins the crew.  
Anyway; here's the chapter, if some of you would be kind enough to leave feedback so I can gauge where I might be making mistakes, it would be ever so helpful.

* * *

I was sitting in Samantha Wildman's room watching over Naomi while Sam was stuck in the Mess Hall; I should have at least had some common sense, but alas I'd neglected to recall everything about this particular episodes' events and that's how I forgot all about the Macroviral infection of the ship.  
Four creatures burst in while I was reading a data pad copy of a sci-fi novel from the late nineties; they swarmed me, my warriors training kicked in and I tried to dodge them, but one of them managed to bite me. That's when I had enough; with a mental summons my blade materialized in my hand, the creatures suddenly stopped cold zipping around in confusion as if their prey had somehow escaped. 

"So you can't sense me anymore huh?" I muttered with a smirk even though these things probably couldn't hear me; and their proximity was really freaking me out. "Thank you Hephaestus." I whispered; with ruthless precision I sliced all four beasts in half and quickly dashed into the other room where Naomi was crying. "Hush, hush now little bit; I'll get you someplace safe." I whispered soothingly wiping at a bit of perspiration dotting my brow; _God it was like an inferno in here now,_ which could only mean one thing I was infected.  
Clutching the sword tightly one handed I picked the little girl up and swiftly though cautiously made my way to the turbo lift; logic dictated that if they couldn't pick me up when I had my sword nearby, they wouldn't sense Naomi either so we'd be able to get to Sickbay without them disabling the turbo lift, as they would do later on once the Captain and Neelix got back.  
I passed several more in the corridor; walking awfully close to them for my liking, but it couldn't be helped. Fortunately my theory proved correct; despite Naomi's upset wailing and the fact that I must have been hotter then an average human now thanks to the damn fever, they could not detect us. We made great time; the turbo lift deposited us on the proper deck and I made my way cautiously towards the entrance, a few of them were buzzing the doors obviously sensing the Doc and Kes who must still be inside working frantically on the cure.  
With a cry that would do Xena proud I leapt them; fighting one handed I cleaved the six entities in half effortlessly killing them, doing it with Naomi in my other arm wasn't easy so I took a page from Xena's book and hugged the infant close to my chest to stabilize her. Then I slipped into Sickbay gasping at the effort I'd expended; I was falling prey to this infection rapidly, or at least apparently rapidly, I didn't feel as bad as I thought the other crewmembers that had been infected must have been.

"Al." Kes exclaimed; she rushed over to me and took Naomi out of my arms, placing her in the special biobed designed for her, seeing her there made me realize just how big she was getting. Which made sense; since she'd be growing up pretty fast, Ktarian children often did according to the show.

"Infected I am." I gasped tumbling into my own biobed and shrugging off my outer-shirt. "They got me in Sam's quarters… Sword; prevents them from tracking me." I managed to get out before it became a true effort to breathe and talk at the same time.

"Doctor can you take care of them; I have to warn the others." Kes called before leaving without so much as an answer from the Doc; I tried to stop her, but she was destined to be infected as well.

"Relax Ensign; we have a possible cure, I'll just need to run a few more tests to perfect the pathogen and you'll be as good as new." The Doc remarked coming up to me and running a scan with his medical tricorder; his eyebrow shot up slightly at the display and I struggled into a sitting position, I grabbed his arm at the elbow.

"If I start mutating; if those things start popping out of my neck, toss me outside. I don't care what happens to me; just don't let them infect Naomi." I insisted in a ragged tone; the Doc shook clear of my grip and returned his tricorder to its' resting place.

"There's no need for hysterics Ensign; you have been infected, but the Macrovirus is traveling through your system at a much slower pace then any of the others I've personally monitored… It's a most curious development." He revealed speaking more to himself most likely; I collapsed none to gently back into the bed my sword clattering beside me, I lost consciousness then and witnessed nothing more.

* * *

Sam groaned as she fought the urge to throw up; she hadn't felt this bad since her morning sickness days while carrying Naomi to term. She was worried about her daughter; Al had been watching her when these creatures attacked, so far a lot of the crew had given in to the virus and were unconscious. Somehow she was still awake; still able to fear for her daughters' safety, and she didn't like it.

There was nothing she could do; these awful abnormalities had herded her and most of the crew down to the cargo bays after they'd infected the rest of the ship. They'd left some of them in the mess hall, but she was one of the unlucky few who could still walk and so had been forced from the mess hall down here where eventually she would turn into a Macroviral producing machine, just like the others.

She fervently hoped that her daughter was safe; and slowly began to close her eyes as she just couldn't take it any longer, her last thought was a silent prayer that someone was watching out for Naomi and keeping her safe.

* * *

The Captain forced the doors open; a hand held phaser emerged from the tiny gap and then the Doctor appeared looking shocked.

"Captain." He exclaimed. "Needless to say; I thought you were something else." He remarked in obvious relief; the Doctor quickly helped her inside. "It won't be long before the other aliens sense you here and try to invade Sickbay, we don't have much time to treat you." He informed escorting Janeway to a biobed as swiftly as possible; the Captain caught sight of Ensign Desrochers lying on the other bed, Naomi Wildman rested in his arms and his curious sword lay horizontally across his legs. She dismissed his presence and allowed the Doctor to help her; the pain was excruciating, she needed answers however.

"Doctor; what's going on, what are tho…" She began to ask letting out a wounded cry as she sat on the biobed.

"You've ruptured your dorsal extensor muscle; and bruised two ribs." He diagnosed; she nodded along in consent with his prognosis. "I'm going to have to perform minor surgery; lie on your side and try to remain perfectly still." He ordered; Janeway did as she was bid knowing she couldn't help her crew in the slightest.

"Tell me what's happened." She ordered eager to know the problem so she could find a solution.

"Voyager has been infected." The Doctor began moving his medical equipment over to the biobed. "By a Macrovirus."

"A Macrovirus?" The Captain repeated unfamiliar with the term.

"A form of life I've never encountered; or even imagined." The Doctor explained beginning the procedure; the Captain turned slightly to look at him despite her injury.

"What about the crew?" She demanded gasping slightly with the pain caused by her moving; the Doctor eyed her disapprovingly.

"Captain; I promise I'll tell you exactly what happened, if you just lie still." He insisted; Janeway returned to her earlier position with a nod of acceptance. "Shortly after you'd left for the Tak Tak home world; we received a distress call from a mining colony, a race called the Garans. They were experiencing what appeared to be; a minor viral outbreak." He explained; the Captain listened to the Doctor's soothing inflections as he healed her slowly, but steadily even as he went on in greater and greater detail.  
"What I didn't realize was that; in the few seconds it took me to purge the filters, some of the virus had already migrated into the Transporter buffer." He revealed after explaining all the details of his away mission; the pain was steadily lessening and the Captain began to consider the Doctor's words as he continued his revealing expose, he certainly had the flair for the dramatic.  
"We continued working on the antigen; unfortunately the Macrovirus was working faster. It had already moved from the transporter buffer; into an adjacent system." He revealed sounding almost disappointed with his failure to prevent the outbreak, but the Captain chose not to interrupt to console him with platitudes she couldn't change the past, but she could save her crew.

"Were any other gel packs infected?" She asked interrupting his extensive monologue; his impressions of the other crewmen's' voices was highly disconcerting.

"No; just the one in the mess hall." He returned eliciting a tiny nod from the Captain; good to know, they were far away from large supplies of replacement packs after all. "The ship is healthy; it's the crew we have to worry about. Your bones have healed, but the surrounding tissue will be sensitive for a few days." He informed putting away his tool and finally allowing her to sit up.

"It's getting warmer in here isn't it." She noted panting a little; the Doctor ran his diagnostic tool over her again.

"I'm afraid it's not just the ship Captain; it's also you, you've been infected with the Macrovirus, you're experiencing a high fever." He alerted.

"Yes; on the bridge, I was bitten by one of them." She revealed holding her arm at a better angle to reveal the large growth caused by the bite on her upper arm, despite her use of the dermal regenerator earlier.

"Your glandular system is already being affected." He returned snapping his tricorder shut and glancing back at the Captain in silent exasperation. "If I don't treat you now you'll end up like the rest of the crew." He added fetching a hypospray and preparing it. "I've spent the past few hours perfecting the antigen; Ensign Desrochers was my first successful test on a live subject, for some reason his metabolism worked slower then everybody else and the Macrovirus did not have time to fully take effect." He revealed; the Captain glanced briefly to their Omniversal travelers' resting form.

"If he's been here why haven't they attacked Sickbay; you mentioned that they would be drawn here by me." She pointed out; the Doctor shook his head.

"That sword of his is masking his body temperature somehow; that's why I placed Naomi in his care after treating him, she's safer then anyone else aboard ship." He returned with a slight smile as he proceeded to inject the Captain; she dismissed this new development and returned to the matter at hand.

"The crew; why are they all in the mess hall and the cargo bays?" She asked.

"I believe the larger Macrovirus's are; driven by some sort of instinct to assemble their host population." He replied.

"Tell me what happened; after B'Elanna was exposed to the infected gel pack." She requested knowing that she should be aware of all pertinent events leading to this development and not just a few.

"I was faced with an imminent epidemic." He began with a slight shake of his head; the Captain listened intently as he went into further detail.

* * *

"Oh thank you!" A voice exclaimed as I finally woke up; the Doc must have given me a damn sedative or something, I didn't think I'd be out through the whole episode. The next thing I knew someone was gripping me in a tight embrace and I felt lips brush my cheek slightly; my eyes snapped fully open as I regained total consciousness. 

"It was nothing." I mumbled climbing back to my feet and picking up my sword; I rubbed the back of my neck nervously, I still wasn't used to Sam kissing my cheek every time she wanted to express her gratitude over something, I kept thinking about Gabrielle and how she fell for me and it worried me.

"It was not." Sam countered eyeing me intensely; she was upset with my dismissal of these heroics and I cracked a smile.

"Ok; ok, so maybe it was something after all; just don't let it spread around that I'm a big softie around her. Might ruin my reputation." I returned with a slight chuckle; Sam shook her head and burst into a happy laugh.

"Come on you; Megan and Jenny want to meet us in the mess hall." She revealed; that made me very nervous, I really didn't want to hang around the mess hall right this minute after what happened.

"Er; maybe some other time, I…" I trailed off at the look she was shooting me and sighed exasperatedly. "All right, but at least tell me they've cleaned out all those creepy things from the ship; I hate overgrown alien bugs." I stated; she smiled in understanding and patted my shoulder.

"Relax Ensign; everything is back to normal." She proclaimed leading me out of the sickbay without so much as a backward glance at the Doc; I shot him an apologetic smile and quickly followed her.

* * *

Samantha Wildman's Personal Log; Supplemental: This crew certainly goes through a lot; we've faced Kazon menaces, the Vidiians and those disgusting creatures classified as Macrovirus, and yet it seems I can always count on that young Ensign Desrochers when it comes to the safety of my daughter.

He's such a sweet young man; you'd like him, he reminds me a little of that young Lieutenant we met on our wedding night. What was his name again? Richter? Rike? Oh it doesn't really matter; you probably know who I'm talking about, he sometimes exhibits the same charming side and he has a wonderful sense of humor. He's also quite taken with our little baby girl… Oh I wish you could see her; this wasn't supposed to be the way you'd find out about her, you must be going through so much; it's been three years since I last saw you. Have you given up on us? Do you believe we've perished as the rest of Starfleet must surely have by now?

I miss you so much; at times I fear we'll never meet again, but that nice young man manages to cheer me up, he can't tell me everything, but he's assured me despite the possible ramifications that I'll be able to see you again much sooner then we've estimated it'll take us to traverse the Delta Quadrant. And then you'll be able to see her; you'd be so proud I know it. We wanted a son, but were blessed with her instead; and who knows, maybe once I get back we can try again… My God how I miss that too; you have no idea how hard it is when it gets closer to that time of the month… Oh forgive me; where was I?

Right Ensign Desrochers; he's great with Naomi, I think he has a natural born talent as a father, one of these days maybe some lucky woman will catch his eye. I know Jenny tries, but I think she's just more comfortable flirting with him; if she ever finally got him to agree to a date… I can just see what that would be like now; awkward, lot's of silence and a complete lack of connection.

Oh dear; I hate to cut this short honey, but it's time for Neelix's luau and I promised the others I'd be there at oh eight hundred, I love you, never forget that and keep hope alive…

* * *

"This food is too rich for my tastes." Al complained pushing is half-finished meal aside; Kes smiled at that as she was currently mingling with his small group of friends. Strange that they would mostly consist of all females; unless you counted Harry and Tom, but they didn't hang out with him as much as the Delaneys' or even Samantha.

"Then why'd you take so much?" Megan pointed out with a smirk.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time, but back home I wasn't much for exotic dishes." He admitted with a slight tilt of his head; Kes wondered if perhaps now he'd start talking about his home life, there was still so much they didn't know about the man. His favorite pastimes, his childhood; despite his somewhat open nature he remained tight lipped about certain things and it had a tendency to drive her curious nature into overdrive.

"Why don't you ever talk about your past?" Megan asked flat out; Al squirmed a little in his seat.

"No reason; I… I'm just a little uncomfortable about it is all. It wasn't the ideal childhood; remember I did say I used to be overweight." He replied in a hushed tone of embarrassment; sometimes he was such a nuisance, Jenny sighed and pushed her plate aside as well.

"Well I'm full; who's up for dessert?" She asked with a big grin; Al smiled seemingly snapping out of his quite nature and raised his hand in a child-like manner.

"Oh me, me, me." He exclaimed in a slightly higher pitched tone. "What is it?" He wondered as he suddenly realized he didn't know what Neelix had prepared.

"Coconut banana ice cream split with a sprinkling of nuts or some kind of really sweet fruit." Kes informed; Al made a face.

"Hasn't anybody heard of Vanilla?" He mumbled under his breath eliciting a giggle from the Delaneys and a smirk from Kes.

"Uh oh; looks like someone needs her rest." Samantha spoke up eyeing Naomi; who was yawning, Al's face lit up as he moved to pick up the baby from her stroller, Sam had strangely enough kept the gift Al had offered after his first away mission, to which most of the crew knew noting about and to which he requested never to speak of it again. Mostly because it always embarrassed him when he had to regale someone with the fact that he did next to nothing to help out the crew deal with Starling.

"I'll do it; you deserve to have some fun, and I'm afraid I've lost my appetite." He admitted in a low tone so as not to offend the chef who happened to be approaching with a big smile on his face seeing to his guests. "I'll keep her company until you've felt like you've had enough; I strongly urge you to try the limbo, its great fun." He added before heading off.

"Thanks." Sam called out; to which Al merely shrugged and offered a smile in return; he seemed to have taken to babysitting with much fervor. Kes greeted Neelix with a smile and left her seat.

"I think I'll go speak with some of the others." She informed before taking her leave; Jenny and Megan turned to Sam.

"You know I don't think we'd have become such good friends if we'd never met Al." Jenny admitted.

"I know." Sam returned. "You always… No wait I shouldn't say anything." She hastily covered up her almost faux pas; Megan smiled.

"It's ok; we know we're rather daunting, not to mention people always seem to think we're ditzes just because we always hang out together." She returned.

"Yeah; we've heard the rumors, it's gotten a lot tamer since our academy days though." Jenny added with a grin; Megan smiled and reached out for one of the ice cream dishes on the tray of one of the passing holographic servers.

"Have you heard the latest gossip?" Jenny asked. "Someone actually thinks the Captain and Commander Chakotay are dating." She added; Sam shook her head.

"How practical." She remarked sarcastically; Megan and Jenny both broke out in a fit of giggles, and the rest of the evening was filled with much laughter and exuberance from their corner of the room.

* * *

I walked into the mess hall a few weeks later looking around for someone in particular; unfortunately he wasn't there, Kes however was and she motioned for me to join her, since I was in no real hurry I chose to honor her request.

"Hello Ensign." She greeted as I sat down across from her; I chuckled at that.

"I insist my friends call me Al; and yet I still get the whole Ensign treatment from you most of the time, and you are a friend." I told her sincerely; she smiled slightly and lowered her gaze briefly.

"I'm more comfortable using your rank; we don't see each other very often and I can't quite get used to the name Al." She revealed with a slight sigh.

"Have you known an Al before?" I wondered; she eyed me curiously. "You always seem a little sad whenever you mention my abbreviated name." I pointed out; she smiled at that and nodded her head.

"There was a very dear friend on Ocampa; she died before I left for the surface." She admitted. "Her name was Alyria and everyone always called her Aly." She explained; I looked surprised at that.

"I don't remember that from any of the episodes." I admitted glancing briefly to the side and filing the information away for the future. "I had no idea; in that case Ensign is just fine." I returned with a soft smile; that's when Neelix came up beside us a big smile on his face.

"Ensign Desrochers; a pleasure to see you again, what can I offer you today?" He asked; I shook my head.

"Sorry Neelix, I already ate in my quarters; the guest quarters replicators are some of the only ones that dispense food besides the ones here in the mess hall." I revealed with a slight chuckle. "And it's almost time for another duty shift in stellar cartography." I added with a sour look. "I was hoping to run into Tom; if you see him could one of you tell him I need to talk to him, it's about holodeck programs." I admitted with a quick glance around the mess hall one more time to make sure I hadn't missed him; Neelix chuckled and slapped my back.

"Of course Monsieur; je vous aidez, la prochain fois je vois Monsieur Paris je voudrais notifie." He returned speaking garbled French; I shot him a surprised glance and he chuckled once more. "I've been practicing Earth languages whenever I get the chance; to help some crewmen with their homesickness." He explained.

"Well ah thanks Neelix; I suppose, but to be quite honest I never really took to the French language, always had a bear of a time passing my classes in school." I admitted with a slight frown; Kes was eyeing me with a small smile, she of course knew about that because I'd told her once before, so she was probably the one who put Neelix up to this.

"Come now Ensign; it's a fascinating language and I find the culture of France most intriguing." He countered defending the French part of my heritage, which was quite a twist; I shook my head and let out a tiny chuckle in return.

"Neelix I'm from Canada; not France. Our culture isn't exactly the same as theirs… Or should I say wasn't; I don't suppose Earth has the same kind of cultures in the twenty-fourth century as it did in mine." I amended with a confused expression; shaking my head I quickly got to my feet, I only had four minutes to get to stellar cartography. "Sorry to chat and run, but I'm gonna be late if I don't get moving; it was nice seeing you again Kes, even for a little bit." I hastily stated before politely taking my leave; Neelix smiled and moved on while Kes followed the man with her eyes until he was gone.

"I wonder what he's planning to do on the Holodecks; I don't think I've ever seen him there outside of his classes with B'Elanna." She mused to herself a small smile stretching across her features at a sudden thought. "I've got to tell Megan and Jenny; they'll probably weasel it out of him, and perhaps he'll let us join him." She remarked; Al was a most intriguing friend, he really didn't spend a lot of time with many people in between duty shifts, his meals and his classes, which were becoming fewer and fewer now that he was gaining hands on experience. Ever since befriending him Kes had a very strange feeling; she'd spoken to some of his other friends and discovered they all shared it, they all felt attached to the young man. As if he was a favorite cousin; a brother or close personal friend; it was his charisma that did it, she was almost positive.  
"Oh; I'd better get to the Sickbay before the Doctor starts to worry." She exclaimed suddenly realizing the time; climbing to her feet she quickly left the mess hall.

* * *

Tom eyed me with a strange twinkle in his eyes much later that same day; I'd given him a data pad with all my requirements, if I had the time to program a holodeck environment myself I wouldn't think twice about doing it. Unfortunately my skills in the field of holodeck programming weren't fully developed yet; so I'd come to the resident expert for help, he was definitely impressed. 

"This is pure gold; and you're saying it was created by a visionary on your world?" He wondered glancing back down at the pad before shooting me another one of those looks; I couldn't quite place it for some reason, but if I had to classify it I'd go with extreme merriment.

"You've never heard of it?" I shot back with a mischievous smile; of course he wouldn't have, I'd dug deep into the history files and there was no reference whatsoever on this particular franchise.

"Are you kidding; it's the stuff of legends, I want to add some stuff if you don't mind." He returned eyeing me for approval.

"So long as the core is untouched knock yourself out, but remember this isn't something out of the nineteen fifties." I reminded; he waved his hand by way of acknowledgement and patted the pad.

"I won't hurt your baby." He returned with a smirk. "B'Elanna is gonna flip when she sees some of the science in this." He added with a wider smirk and a mischievous twinkle.

"Just let me know as soon as you're finished Tom." I requested before taking my leave confident that my project was in capable hands; he nodded absentmindedly thumbing through the pages again his eyes dancing with that self-same expression from before.

* * *

Deep within a vast cosmic rift undetectable to Starfleet sensors there exists a planet that houses a great Empire; although the rest of the universe is mostly unaware of their presence, they are certainly aware of it. The planet's name is Dracos and the species call itself the Draconian, they have evolved from a lizard-like ancestor; however they share most common traits with creatures more commonly referenced in works of fantasy literature.  
The female of the species is inherently larger than the male; standing at seven feet, with long elegant swept back wing membranes decorative only, they have long since lost the gift of flight. The male is commonly six foot two in height, with only rare exceptions in the bloodline of the great Emperors; some of whom have been recorded at nine feet tall. This bloodline also happens to be unique in the sharp horn-like crests that adorn the head, indicative of the status befitted the Emperors; the common Draconian only has flat bald heads with transparent membranes that flow downwards and connect with the wing membranes on the back.  
Common traits found on all Draconians are their wicked talons, dagger-like teeth, reptilian eyes and total lack of body hair. Their clothing is weaved of the finest materials; none ever dress in anything less then the best, it would be unseemly to grace their mother planet with anything else.  
Their space fleet is one of the most powerful in the entire quadrant; if not the Galaxy, they are superior to many including the dreaded Borg Collective. None of their species have ever been assimilated; many vessels serve to protect their home world, for it is rare for them to venture out into the cosmos in this the twilight of their existence. Most common are the small Shuriken-like single pilot fighters; however they have many other vessels, the two-man bombers shaped like Nunchaku, the elegant troop carriers in the guise of Tessen, the mighty warships shaped in the image of the Jitte and the great flagship of the Emperor formed in the guise of the Katana.  
The political, economical and sociological status of this species is dangerously unstable; with dissident factions constantly striving to usurp their Emperor, none have yet to succeed however due to the diligent nature of the Gyasa, the Emperors' personal guard.  
The current Emperor is presently seated in his ornately carved marble throne; his long red and black cloak arrayed behind him parted where his tail sits, lashing back and forth in silent discord. Suddenly a great flash lights the hall and the puny shriveled old form of an ancient Draconian appears from nothing; cackling in a raspy ancient toned voice, the slitted eyes of the Lord Emperor narrow in sudden suspicion as his tongue flickers out running across his upper lip in silent hunger. 

"Hunisssss, tricksssssster it hassssss been a long time since you have appeared before ussssss… We are obviously concerned." The Emperor greets nodding slightly to show a modicum of respect for the graying and cracked wise one; his tone is deep, full of a rich elegantry belied only by the rolling use of the letter S.

"Lord Emperor Shadok; I bring grave tidingsssss, long hassssss it been prophesized that the great one would come and destroy the Empire." Hunis began his voice crackling with age and oddly enough sounding like a familiar character from another popular franchise. "Many have disssmissssed these prophecies, but today I have found new evidence that supportssssss them… Strong evidence."

"Speak old tulagh." Shadok insisted growing ever more impatient with his theatrics.

"Sssssithicussssss hassssss returned." Hunis stated all senility gone from his tone and countenance; his staff rapped across the onyx floor as he moved rapidly to the great eye; a jade crystal in the shape of a perfect sphere, it rests in the center of the vast hall where the Emperor presides over all. He mutters to himself; too low for Shadok to hear he spoke the mystical incantation and the darkened orb grew opaque as if filled with a strange mist.  
Shadok rose; his taloned feet clacking sharply against the floor as he strode quickly to the tricksters side, his cloak billowing out behind him and fluttering almost regally. The mists wavered and soon parted revealing the form of a strange creature in a gold and black outfit with an odd golden pin sticking on his chest.

"What mockery isss thisssss?" Shadok demanded. "Sithicussssss would never sully himself with such a form." He countered disbelievingly.

"You are mistaken Lord Emperor." Hunis stated with his usual grating cackle. "Look again; harder thisssss time." He urged; Shadok scoffed with a snort, but did as he was bid regarding the pitiful creature. As he stared at this disgusting fair skinned biped the image wavered and suddenly he saw a great red Draconian; nine feet tall with mercury pupils and a rainbow crest.

"It can't be." He gasped as Hunis burst into laughter once more and stilled the orbs vision so that the image vanished once more.

"They approach the rift as we speak on a vessel called Voyager, Sithicussssss and his slavessssssss." He elaborated moving back to the center of the room where the deepest shadows presided; Shadok could not speak, he continued to stare at the eye as though the image was still there in great fear.

"We shall crush this Kithiny, this Voyager." He finally proclaimed, Hunis cackled once more his shape unfolding as he did until Q now stood in the deep shadows; invisible to his old plaything.

"Good Lord Emperor, very good." He whispered before vanishing in a flash of light.

"Caldok, Veraclis; my chancelorssss!" Shadok cried summoning those in charge of his affairs off planet; they immediately came at his call, two smaller Draconians for the Emperor was indeed a tall specimen. "Sithicussssss shall not fulfill the prophecy, thisssss I command." He ordered in a hushed tone before turning to address his most trusted advisors; outside the Lady Empress of course.

To Be Continued: **Ah joy; a new alien species that share certain traits with creatures of fantasy, although they don't play much of a big role in this story they serve their purpose well. In case you're wondering the words spoken in the Draconians own tongue are pronounced thusly...**

**Tulagh (Tu-la the GH is silent.)**

**Kithiny (Kith-in-aie pretty much how it's spelled.)  
Also the names are farily simple pronunciations;  
Hunis (Huuu-nissss)  
Shadok (Sha-dock)  
Veraclis (Vera-clise)  
Caldok (Cal-dohk) **

Anyway; I suppose that's all I have to cover in regards to assisting people with pronunciatons, the next chapter will focus primarily on the holodeck program Tom and Al were discussing in this chapter. In fact most of these last few chapters focus heavily on Al and his friends rather then any action or episode moments; leading up to the two part Scorpion epic in which Janeway attempts to bargain with the Borg for safe passage through their space.  
Which leads to a certain individual to encounter our wayward hero and develop an unhealthy interest in him; oh yes you do not want to be targeted specificaly by Her Majesty.  
I look forward to reading heaps of reviews; so why not leave me a little something, no matter how pointless you might think it is? Ah well; back to my writing I must go, still lots of work to do to finish all these Star Trek Voyager stories...


	8. Chapter Eight: Pleasent Distractions

**Author's Notes:** A lack of reviews can drive a person to drink; if one was inclined to be so dramatical that is. I'll update with this new chapter and see what happens, but if I don't get any more reviews I don't think I'll be updating for a while, so if you LIKE this story and want to see it continue then by all means... READ & REVIEW. Oh yes; fair warning, this chapter starts off with a holodeck program... I think it'll be obvious where I got it from and I don't own it any more then I own Star Trek, which is to say not at all.

* * *

I stood inside the Holodeck with Jenny, Megan, Kes, Sam and Tom Paris; Ensigns' Kim and Bristow had been invited to join us, but unfortunately they had a duty shift and B'Elanna promised she'd come as soon as her shift ended in another twenty minutes or so. I was impatient to see my program in action, but Tom was going over some last minute checks to make sure nothing untoward occurred; he had more experience then me so I deferred to his wisdom in this case.

"What kind of program has us dressed like this?" Megan complained indicating the rather unflattering plain brown trousers she was wearing coupled with the blue top; the replicators had done a good job with the outfit I had pulled out of my memories.

"I don't know; mine is kind of nice." Jenny returned; she was wearing a stylized reddish maroon ensemble, which of course matched the other pattern I could recall. I figured they'd be best suited to play this dual role; they were twins after all.

"I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to be." Sam interjected; she was wearing a similar outfit to Jenny's, but hers wasn't as glamorous.

"A hand maiden to the queen, which is Jenny's' role; or Megan's' I forget." Tom explained from his position; I grinned at the outfit he'd made for himself, he was wearing plain brown pants with a matching lighter toned top, which was most likely beige. He was also wearing a long flowing rich brown cloak with hood; and had added a long braid to his hair.

"Jenny is the real queen; Megan's her twin decoy." I explained in turn; I was the odd one out in this guest ensemble, since I was wearing a completely black ensemble with a black cloak and matching hood, I'd gone so far as to have the Doctor modify my physical appearance cosmetically to match the character I would be playing. Kes eyed me curiously; she wasn't wearing the handmaiden attire, instead she'd been given a bulky flight suit in rich reds and maroons and a strange helmet-like cap.

"So what are we going to be doing anyway?" She asked me tugging uncomfortably at her uniform; it wasn't something she was used to and I grinned wickedly, the effects caused by my cosmetic surgery making me look sinister.

"That's a surprise; you get the full intro when the program starts up, I already know what to expect." I returned with a sly smile.

"Why don't I like the sound of that?" B'Elanna suddenly asked as she joined us; I was a little surprised she was early.

"You're early." Tom remarked echoing my thoughts.

"Privileges of being Chief Engineer." She returned. "So; what's this great program you wanted to share?" She asked pointedly looking between the two of us; I grinned obviously giving them a sense of unease with my new look, which was what I was going for. Tom however openly laughed; quietly of course and briefly, then he turned to the controls.

"Al here has devised a great program based on a science fiction franchise similar to the one he knows us from." He explained; by now pretty much everyone on the ship knew at least partially that I had watched a show called Star Trek Voyager and that's how I knew certain facts about the missions. It's how I got out of duty shifts during those missions; the Captain didn't want me invoking the temporal prime directive all the time, so she tried to keep me as far away during critical missions. "This one's very different; they don't use warp drive, instead it's Hyper drive and there's this group of crazy knights that believe in this all powerful energy field called the Force." He elaborated with a big grin on his face.

"Typical twentieth century science fiction; well typical of my Earth at any rate." I spoke up with a shrug. "We'll be picking up near the very end of one particular adventure; mostly because Tom wanted to, I would have preferred starting from the beginning." I added with a slight shrug and a small frown, which did not look the least bit frightening despite my new facial features. "This was always one of my favorites; and I wanted to share it with my friends, it'll be fun B'Elanna." I encouraged with an over exaggerated smile; she merely shook her head, she'd already gotten dressed up in an outfit similar to Kes's anyway.

"Go ahead Tom; I'm rather curious." She admitted with a small smile of her own; Tom grinned and quickly punched in the commands to activate the proper chapter. The world swam into being around us and I became separated from the group per the parameters of the program; I grinned as I shrugged out of the heavy cloak.

"A Long Time Ago; In A Galaxy Far, Far Away…" Tom's unmistakable voice could be heard; I tuned out the introduction and awaited the proper commencement of this chapter, I rolled my shoulders and tested the weight of the holographic dual-saber I'd received once the program started.

The large doors before me suddenly opened slowly; I smirked playfully and looked up from the lightsaber deftly secreting it away so I wouldn't upset the flow of the story, Tom stood next to a man who looked remarkably like Liam Neeson.

"We'll deal with this." He stated inclining his head towards the Delaney's and Samantha who were accompanied by a host of guards and Captain Panaka. "Find another way." He added before igniting his lightsaber; Tom followed suit and I grinned wickedly as I produced my twin bladed saber, the thrumming accompanied by its activation filled me with a giddy thrill. The battle began with Qui-Gon Jinn; Tom followed after and the doors closed behind us, fighting with this sort of weapon was a tad more challenging compared to my own broadsword.

The program had been designed with protocols to allow the users playing as force sensitive characters their same abilities; so when I leapt out into the bank of giant pillars I actually traveled a greater distance then I ever possibly could normally, it was actually quite fun. A pity I'd selected this character instead of someone who could tag along with the others, but I always did have a penchant for villains.

* * *

"This way your highness." Panaka urged Jenny as their group traveled stealthily through the large Palace of Theed; Jenny wasn't used to so much action, when you're stationed in stellar cartography there isn't much call for physical upkeep. Fortunately she and Megan practiced a healthy exercise regimen, but this was still most difficult; the rooms were so big and the stairs went on for miles. Hadn't anyone heard of turbo lifts?  
Just then a host of gangly looking Battle Droids charged around the corner; blasters fired and Jenny squeaked in fright as she dove for cover, that's when the larger Destroyer droids or Droideka showed up at the opposite end of the corridor.  
Most of the guards offered protection; Panaka looked around for some avenue of escape, Megan noticed that they were close to the large ornately crafted windows.

"Outside." She suggested taking aim and blowing one of the windows across the hallway out; unwittingly she'd picked up on the same plan from the film, the other guards followed suit and as some followed Panaka, Megan and Jenny outside the others remained to guard their flanks.

"I hope Sam's ok." Jenny mumbled as she followed Panaka's lead and attached a small grappling device to the end of her largest blaster.

"Sabe will be fine your highness." He returned; as one the group fired their lines and ascended, Jenny wouldn't admit this to just anybody, but she was actually having a lot of fun.

* * *

B'Elanna hollered with glee as she blasted Droid fighters out of the air; she was really enjoying this role Tom suggested, the pilot aspect was something she normally wouldn't have chosen for herself. However in these tiny fighters and with that little astromech droid behind her to guide her actions she was thrilled.

"Ensign Desrochers certainly knows how to entertain." Kes remarked over a secure channel, so as not to disrupt the flow of the story.

"I can say this for him; he's got good taste." She returned. "I'd love to study this hyper drive technology and see if it can't be adapted some way for our own use." She admitted with a small shrug as she clutched the yolk tighter and moved the fighter into a controlled spin designed to disrupt the targeting lock Arfive was warning her about.

"I don't see why I'm in this violent simulation though." Kes admitted. "It's not really my style." She added; B'Elanna chuckled as her pursuers were neutralized by larger gun ship fire, and she pulled back into formation with the Ocampa.

"Just go with it Kes; they're only artificial life forms, and pretty basic ones at that." She encouraged; she could see Kes shrug from this distance and the Ocampa pulled hard on her yolk, she looped around a group of Droids tagging her and fired destroying them instantly.

"This is fun." She agreed a large smile spreading across her features. "But don't ever tell Neelix about it; he'd never understand." She added in a conspiratorial whisper; the two women shared a good laugh and returned to the game.

* * *

It was only Tom and me fighting now; Qui-Gon was mortally wounded, just like in the movie and I was having the time of my life. Even though I really shouldn't have been what with being the villain and all, but I couldn't help it.

"Curious that you'd pick this part." I remarked during a slight lull in battle.

"I enjoy the role of the hero." He returned with a slight shrug. "These lightsabers are something else; I wonder if we could replicate them?" He mused.

"What for?" I retorted. "They're weapons and I hardly think the Captain would approve of us replicating deadly laser swords just for holodeck sessions." I pointed out.

"It was just a thought." Tom shot back with a slight shrug; and then we returned to the matter at hand, good versus evil. I knocked his weapon from his hand and sent him falling part way into the pit; per the programs protocols Tom managed to snag the knob protruding from the wall and held on, it was obvious he'd done his homework concerning this role.  
Qui-Gon's lightsaber began to slightly rattle from its perch on the floor; choosing to play along I eyed Obi-Wan confusedly, suddenly Tom leapt out of the pit and palmed the flying blade. He activated it and landed in one fluid motion slicing the holographic blade straight through my midsection; it passed harmlessly through, but I went along with the game. My dual-bladed saber fell down the pit before me and then I toppled in; knowing that to Tom it would look like he'd sliced me in half. After the big victory celebration the program ended and I found myself lying on the floor looking up at a grinning Tom; I accepted his hand and he pulled me back up.

"Next time I want to try being Maul." He stated.

"I thought you preferred being the hero?" I shot back with a small knowing smile.

"Yes, but Maul is the only one with a dual-bladed saber and I want to try that out." He returned sounding like a kid who'd just discovered a new and powerful secret about his favorite toy.

"That was pretty good Al." B'Elanna spoke up as she led the group off the holodeck. "I'd like to try it from beginning to end actually." She added thoughtfully.

"Me too; I'm curious to know everything that happened to these people before this point, the intro kind of glossed over that." Jenny spoke up; I smiled and shot a friendly wink.

"I'm certain that can be arranged; and I'll bet Tom has already started working on the sequel." I added with a small smirk; the others shot me strange looks as we headed to the mess hall for dinner, but I ignored them.

"It was different." Sam suddenly announced. "But I liked it." She added shooting me a smile of her own.

"I'll have to share it with Neelix." Kes agreed. "I bet the Doctor might like it too."

"Hey; most of the people on this crew might get a kick out of it." I countered loudly. "There's nothing we humans like better then good clean wholesome fun; especially when it hits' close to home like that program does." I added thoughtfully; the others offered their silent agreement, and I smiled again at the thought that I could have just been responsible for creating the universes' first Star Wars fan club in the Star Trek universe, the thought was quite humorous considering the rabid reactions of both fan bases hard core members.

* * *

Kes' Personal Log; Supplemental: Today was a most interesting day; Ensign Desrochers invited us to the holodeck to try out that program he and Tom collaborated on. It was quite engrossing; and I had a wonderful time, though I really don't want to tell Neelix just how wonderful it is. He'll only get jealous and think less of me for reveling in the destruction of those Droid things; Al offered to let me study up on this program, he's got tons of information stored on data pads for Tom's reference, but I told him I'd just play through the holo-novel if I wanted to learn more about it.

He's really grown on me since first meeting him; I can't get the image of his face out of my mind that time I let Jenny and Megan know just how I met him, it was so much fun to tease him a little about that. Of course aside from the Doctor and Mister Paris being the only person on the ship who's seen his entire body does seem to offer up a world of blackmail opportunities… Oh why is itso hard to stop myself from pursuing these strange thoughts in private? Perhaps it's because of my lessons with Tuvok; or maybe it has something to do with my age, I wish there were other Ocampa I could ask about this. Sometimes it's so confusing.  
Ensign Bristow stopped by sickbay this afternoon with a torn ligament; it was fun getting to talk with him again, working for the Doctor allows me to meet many of the crew on some small personal levels and I do enjoy making new friendships. Ensign Bristow is actually trying to get up the nerve to ask Ensign Caplain out on a date, but he's not sure what her reaction will be; I told him just to go for it because love is one thing you don't want to miss out on.

I wish my relationship with Neelix could have gone better, but unfortunately things just weren't working out for us; especially after my possession.  
Oh that reminds me I promised to show some of the crewmen what I've been doing in hydroponics, computer end recording…

* * *

Tom sat by himself going over the data pad featuring the Star Wars holo-novel; Al and most of the others had long been gone off to their duty shifts or quarters for a good nights sleep. He was still tinkering with the program to see if there was anything more he could do to augment it.  
That was how B'Elanna found him; she approached rather quietly for her and managed to take him by complete surprise as she sat down next to him.

"Tom; I've been thinking about those hyper drives in the holo-novel, if you've got a minute maybe we could go over them together and see if there's any way to practically use them." She whispered; Tom eyed her curiously.

"Why?" He wondered.

"Because they might be the difference between getting home sooner." She shot back as if it should be obvious. "I've been studying the technical data supplied by the programs parameters; it's not really that complete, something tells me Ensign Desrochers doesn't have a very good grasp on all the technical info, but even so it might be something worth looking into." She stated in a low tone; careful to keep from growing further enraged at the young man; Tom shrugged and put his data pad down turning to face the chief engineer.

"If you say so B'Elanna, but I don't think we'll be able to get anything more out of them; unless Al has some kind of epiphany and fills in all the blanks." He quipped; B'Elanna snorted and decided against saying anything for fear of coming off as snappy, she and Tom didn't always agree on everything, but she could at least tolerate the man.

"Great, meet me in holodeck two; I've just got to get something." She requested before taking her leave; Tom sighed and retrieved his data pad before leaving, it was going to be a long night.

* * *

Q silently observed Shadok the lord Emperor of Dracos and smiled; his first pawn was acting much as to be expected, there was little to say about the Draconians as a whole. They had long since fallen from the radar of any of the current species governing the Delta Quadrant; in point of fact their prophecy had actually been created by himself during his earlier days of mischief making, so why not use their fears and goad them into fulfilling their own prophecy of doom.  
Sure it meant he was using the young man who had fallen under his personal care for his own amusement, but he had grown tired of following the guidelines set forth by the continuum and reverting back to his old ways just this once wasn't such a bad thing.  
Especially if it rid this universe of those annoying creatures; they served no useful purpose anymore, and sometimes sacrifices did have to be made for the sake of maintaining the great cosmic balance.  
Ah yes; speaking of things that required his tending, he should really have a word with those Gods who had messed around earlier with certain things; he was in charge now… Then again he'd already had a word with them, or at least a future version of himself had; paradoxes weren't very confusing to the Q, but they could still prove bothersome. Now he had to see to it that, that event actually took place; it was rather inconvenient at this junction, especially with Voyager drawing ever closer to Borg space.  
Don't provoke the Borg was one of the only rules the continuum made that he could appreciate; however in this instance he was certain they would not notice, after all if his young charge was going to succeed in his planned destiny then he was going to need an edge that could only be provided here. Unfortunately Q couldn't just activate anything; he had to go through the proper channels, which could result in untoward countless numbers of side-effects, but it was a chance he was willing to take.  
First however there was that little matter of ensuring the paradox took place; what a great inconvenience for one of his talents as he had already mentioned…

To Be Continued: **So what did you think? Good or bad? In the next exciting chapter I'm afraid not much is going to happen per-se, as I may have mentioned before this story doesn't have a massive killer ending like other later chapters; we're only getting started here. But things are definately going to heat up; and you just know the Borg are going to get heavily involved at some point, especially since Seven of Nine of is soon to join our happy crew.  
And whatever Q is planning is definately going to have ramifications; for the forseeable future if not more so.**


	9. Chapter Nine: Enter the Borg, Part One

**Author's Notes: **Time has passed; it's been a while since I've last updated and my hopes to find someone reviewing my work to let me know if they've liked it or not seems to have failed miserably. This is the last chapter of Learning Curve; A New Frontier, if you ever truly wish to know what will happen after this story I strongly suggest you read & review, let me know what you thought; if it was good or bad... If I don't get even one review, well I'm afraid you'll never get to see the outcome of the plots left dangling at the end of this chapter... Perhaps I'm being unreasonable; perhaps those who have read my works in the past believe that I'm bluffing since I updated them regularily even when I didn't get reviews, but since I did say I wasn't going to update last time and I've stuck to it for almost two full months now, believe me this is no bluff.  
I don't know; I want to share my work, but it seems no one really wants to even read my work, won't stop me from writing it, but it will stop me from posting it. I think I've said enough; here is the final chapter of this tale, perhaps a rather anti-climactic ending, but I had to save something for the show stopping beginning of the next story.

* * *

I sat in my quarters nervously; the ship was drawing dangerously close to Borg space, which meant only one thing. Kes would soon be leaving and Seven of Nine would join us; unlike the previous couple of months over the past few days I'd been working in engineering helping out. On the bridge as well and even in sickbay; I was helping prepare the ship for our encounter with the Borg, the last handful of episode events hadn't really needed me around anyway, even when the Nyrians temporarily took over the ship.  
The ship suddenly began to shake as I sat lost in thought; I knew then that this was it, the first encounter with the Borg.

"The scorpion stings; I wonder if this is how the crew of the Enterprise felt that day." I mused speculatively; a signal alerted me that someone wished to contact me.

"Ensign Desrochers." B'Elannas' voice erupted from my com.

"Yes Lieutenant." I returned after tapping my badge.

"Report to engineering." She ordered; I sighed softly so it wouldn't carry over the line.

"On my way." I informed rising from my seat and striding towards the entrance; it wasn't my duty shift, so why call me?

* * *

"You want me to what?" I asked confusedly after B'Elanna explained why she'd called me.

"Just stand there and let me try out this new idea of mine." The chief engineer returned; I sighed, but did as she instructed. She punched in a few commands quickly and seemed to approve; next she moved over to one of the other consoles near the entranceway and ran a full diagnostic.

"Lieutenant; the Captain wishes your presence on the bridge." Vorik suddenly spoke up; B'Elanna glared in frustration at the Vulcan engineer, but ceased her work.

"Fine; we'll just have to try again later." She sighed striding out of engineering; I shook my head and chuckled softly.

"Perhaps sooner then you might think Lieutenant." I returned with a tiny grin; trust B'Elanna to choose me of all people to try out her new skeletal lock idea for the transporters, crazy Klingon.

* * *

I awoke startled; the door chime was ringing, I rubbed at the blurry sleep still in my eyes rising into a sitting position. Grabbing my nearby discarded shirt I threw it on and stumbled out of bed; pausing briefly to pull on my pants, then I made my way to the door and unlocked it.

"Come." I called out turning my back on the door and moving towards the replicator; much to my surprise a few of my friends entered my quarters tentatively, Sam was first wearing standard Starfleet sleep attire.

"Al; can we talk?" Jenny asked following Sam in; I nodded confusedly doing my best to ignore the almost transparent, considerably sexier sleep attire both twins were wearing.

"What's wrong?" I wondered moving with my cup of hot chocolate and taking the seat behind my personal desk, I could have picked anything to drink I suppose; however I didn't feel like soda and I couldn't stand water.

"We can't stop thinking about all that's been happening." Megan revealed taking a seat on the floor cross-legged; her position gave me a clear view of her cleavage, fortunately I was capable of controlling the strong desire to look down her top. _Damn Hormones; this is all because I'm a guy isn't it._

"The Borg; species eight four seven two and Harry, oh God poor Harry." Jenny partially wailed; I regarded the Delaneys' curiously, Sam checked Naomi who was sleeping in her arms.

"Why come to me?" I wondered; Megan chuckled and eyed me with deep conviction.

"Because you've become our friend; and on a ship like this close friendship isn't always easy to come by, I mean we're far from home and most of the guys only ever want to date us." She pointed out; I smiled gratefully, but now to return to the matter at hand.

"You're all worried; I don't blame you, just the thought of the Borg gives me the chills." I admitted; I glanced around conspiratorially as if making sure no one was listening in. "But I have a feeling it'll all work out for us."

"Because of your future knowledge deal." Sam spoke up; I nodded, the three of them eyed me curiously.

"Then Harry will be ok?" Megan asked hopefully; I sighed, I'd made a slight faux pas.

"You know I can't tell you anything." I reminded; it was Jenny's' turn to sigh.

"Yeah; we know, but that won't stop us from being curious." She pointed out; I nodded with a small smile.

"Did you guys want to talk about it though?" I wondered. "I mean; talkin' sometimes helps." I added adopting a counselors approach; Sam shook her head.

"We just couldn't sleep." She admitted. "So we thought we'd, ah, see if you had the same problem." She added; I sighed raising my eyes to the heavens slightly.

"Oh; did you want us to leave then?" Jenny asked in a hurt tone.

"No, no; of course not. It's totally ok; if you guys like need a bonding session or somethin' like that, it's no big." I returned mentally cringing at my sudden adoption of slang terminology; Megan giggled and shot me a small smile.

"You are one strange person." She remarked; Jenny rolled her eyes slightly at that, and Sam smiled glancing briefly at Naomi.

"I don't know what I'd do if she was taken." She admitted fearfully; Jenny and Megan nodded as one and both squeezed one of Sam's shoulders supportively.

"I would never let anything happen to my friends; or Naomi." I revealed softly glancing briefly to the floor. "Believe me; if anything was going to happen to you I would do everything in my power and beyond to prevent it." I stated with narrowed eyes as I glanced back up at my friends.

"Awww; that's so sweet." Jenny cooed shooting me a look filled with admiration and a hint of sudden, strong desire.

"You really are a great friend." Megan added also gazing at me with the self-same expression; I blushed a little and shook my head dismissively.

"Hey; it's how I feel." I admitted. "You people have everybody else on this ship, I don't have anybody; I mean I'm lost in a universe that's not my home and I don't know how to get back." I added with deep melancholy inflecting my tone; Jenny frowned slightly at that.

"I never thought of that before." She remarked regarding her sister lovingly. "It was murder just to get assigned to the same ship." She recalled with a mischievous grin.

"I don't know how we managed it." Megan agreed with a smirk.

"Well." Sam interjected. "As long as you're aboard Voyager you'll always be able to count on us." She stated firmly; Megan and Jenny nodded in agreement and I smiled gratefully, though I couldn't explain why the friendship between us all had grown the way it had.

"Thanks." I whispered fighting the urge to shed a few tears of gratitude; everything looked like it was going to be all ok.

* * *

Jenny worked calmly in stellar cartography though she really didn't have anything to do; some part of her was dwelling on Al of late, and an unshakeable feeling of impending doom. She couldn't place it; maybe it was the oppressiveness the Borg drones aboard the ship were making her feel, or maybe it was just nerves.  
Then again; if something did happen to him how would she feel? Devastated; he was rapidly becoming a very dear friend and she'd hate to see him go, one of these days he'd have to though. He didn't belong here; much as she loathed to even think it, she knew Al belonged home just as she would one day find her own way home. Shaking aside her misgivings she turned back to the work at hand; not very much, but it was a way to stop dwelling upon things, maybe she'd go see Al again when she got off duty… Without warning the ship began to shake like mad and she was thrown to the floor.

"Oh God what's happening?" She wondered clearly confused; struggling to her feet she moved to study her station, the planet controlled by the Borg that Voyager had been close to was gone, destroyed by those odd aliens.  
And Voyager was now being dragged off by the Borg Cube; Jenny sighed slightly in relief, at least it wasn't anything too serious. "I think I'll go see how Harry is doing instead; Al's probably going to be busy since he has that shift in engineering soon." She said to herself as she calmly returned to work.

* * *

Being dragged along by a Borg cube was a tad unsettling for the crew; since I already knew what to expect, but I felt it unwise to inform Chakotay, he and I didn't get along as well as Janeway and I did. She had a soft spot for me on some level I failed to identify; the fact that I was an active member of her crew probably had something to do with it, even if I was still a relative novice with certain aspects of this century's technology.  
I made my way to sickbay after the battle with the enemy ship took place; I had a few cuts and another broken arm thanks to the rough ride, but that's what I get for protecting Naomi… It's amazing how often this crew forgot there was a child onboard.

"For now they're contained." Chakotay was saying as I slipped quietly inside; he was reporting to Tuvok while Kes healed his injuries, the Doctor was just crossing the room. "They've assimilated cargo bay two and are drawing energy from the secondary power couplings." He informed; despite my own pain I stood patiently off to the side awaiting my turn, the senior bridge crew had far more serious injuries then I did.

"But they've gone no further." Tuvok returned seeking confirmation of this assessment.

"Not yet; I've sealed off decks nine through thirteen and posted security details at every access point." Chakotay stated; I shook my head at that, one of the security details had gotten a little to edgy with me on my way up here.

"I suggest we increase security around sickbay as well." Tuvok countered.

"Already done." Chakotay revealed, which was true; I'd seen them myself. "How far did you get on the weapon?" He asked changing topics.

"We're ready to construct a prototype." Tuvok informed.

"You're fit to return back to duty Lieutenant." Kes spoke up turning from her patient; Tuvok climbed off the biobed and approached his student.

"And you Kes?" He wondered; that was strange, I don't remember her being injured.

"Oh I'm all right." She returned still examining her data pad. "The visions have stopped for now." _Oh right; species eight four seven two was telepathic._ Everyone now turned their attentions to the far corner and the intensive care unit; the Doctor was working on the Captain, I couldn't see her from this angle, but I knew she wasn't doing to good. The Doctor finished his examination and approached Chakotay for his report.

"The plasma burns to her thoracic region I can treat; and I've already stopped the internal bleeding, but her neural injuries are going to require some… Creative thinking." He informed.

"Before we beamed out; an alien energy discharge struck very near the Captain." Tuvok revealed; I had become so engrossed in following along as the scene played out I'd forgotten my own injuries, Kes however noticed me standing still and silent in the corner and approached me.

"Al; you're hurt." She whispered snapping me from my observations, it was one of the rare occasions she used my name; I shrugged and shot her a small smile.

"The price we babysitters' must pay." I returned good naturedly; Kes smiled back, her solemn demeanor melting away along with whatever had been troubling her. "There's that smile I know and love." I stated with a slight chuckle; since we'd become friends I always tried to get her to smile when she looked down, after all she had helped introduce me to other people.

"Come on lets' get you fixed up." She urged indicating one of the biobeds; I nodded at that and hopped on, the drama unfurling across the room forgotten. She deftly began to run the osteoregenerator over my arm healing the broken bone; _and here I thought I'd get through life without ever breaking one of these, what a gullible fool._ "There we are; as good as new." She informed with another smile; I snapped from my reverie and smiled back, surprising her with a gentle hug I spoke softly into her ear.

"Thanks." I whispered. "I'm gonna miss you." I added thoughtfully.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She wondered sounding a little frightened now.

"Nothing." I returned with a shake of my head; _stupid, stupid she's not leaving yet._ "Forget I said anything." I added before taking my leave alongside a sour faced Commander Chakotay; Kes's eyes stayed on me until the doors closed, she'd understand in due course it was only a matter of time after all.

* * *

Seven of Nine nearly ran into me as she was being escorted back to cargo bay two by her security guards; I looked up at her with a sense of trepidation, for some reason the way she was looking at me really twisted into my gut.

"You are preventing me from passing." She stated coldly; with one swift motion she shoved me aside and resumed her previous heading, I shuddered at the spot where she'd touched me… It was almost as if something had scanned me in that instant; though I had no idea why I felt that way, shrugging aside these feelings I returned to my own heading Tuvok wouldn't wait.

* * *

Tom heard the whispered murmurings as he went to get his afternoon meal; many of the crew were highly uneasy with having the Borg on the ship, no matter how few of the drones were currently operating. About the only calm person onboard was Ensign Desrochers; and that was because of his blasted future knowledge, which in hindsight was probably more of a curse then a blessing.  
Tom seemed to recall Al doing his best not to upset the timeline of pre-established events; why that was Tom couldn't fathom, maybe it was because he was afraid of messing up their chance to get home. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that he still wasn't fully opening up about his past; Tom could tell there was a story in that somewhere; it would just need a little coaxing to get it out is all.

"Tom; over here." Megan Delaney called from her seat; Tom nodded by way of greeting and quickly joined the woman at her table a big smile on his face, though it had been a while since he'd dated her.

"Hey; where's Jenny?" He wondered; Megan sighed and rolled her eyes.

"In her quarters; she forgot to watch what she was doing during that last attack and wound up suffering a concussion, the Doc took her off duty for observation." She stated speaking the last word with dripping sarcasm; in a century as technically advanced as this observation meant absolutely nothing, but it had to be obeyed despite it's impracticality.

"Have you seen that one drone yet? Seven of Nine?" He wondered; Megan shook her head.

"Hasn't she been confined to the cargo bay now that the rest of the drones are so much space debris?" She wondered; Tom smirked.

"Since when has that ever stopped people from being curious?" He wondered taking a bite.

"So after this how about we try out that Star Wars program again?" Megan wondered with a playful smile; Tom shook his head.

"I'd love to, but I'm afraid I'm going to have a lot of work to do." He returned apologetically. "Perhaps some other time." He added smiling once more; Megan sighed and nodded.

"Sure whatever; it's starting to become a little dull on this ship in all honesty." She admitted in a low tone; Tom eyed her with surprise.

"You find life aboard a starship dull?" He repeated seeking clarification.

"No it's not that; it's just… Oh how do I explain this?" She wondered trailing off as she lost herself in thought; Tom waited patiently wondering where she was going with this. "I guess I really can't explain it; sorry Tom, something has been getting under my skin lately and I just can't understand it." She finally continued with an open expression of apology; Tom smiled and shook his head.

"It's not really that important; just so long as it doesn't drive you to commit some kind of crime or something, I'd hate to see you cooped up in the brig for the rest of this trip." He returned with a slight chuckle; Megan shook her head and giggled.

"Believe me it's nothing like that." She returned; by now she'd finished her meal and unfortunately she had to be on duty in twenty-five minutes. "Sorry Tom looks like I've got to be going; it was nice getting the chance to talk with you again." She said before getting up to move her tray; Tom nodded briefly and shot her that ever present grin he seemed to always sport.

"Likewise; I look forward to our next little chat." He called out; Megan smiled, Tom at least was a nice guy. Slipping out of the mess hall she made her way down to stellar cartography; it was a never ending cycle, but at least she had a few good friends and the holodecks to help take her mind off things at times. Sometimes she just got far too homesick; with a sigh she quickly buried her feelings and put on the false smile she'd perfected for times like this, she wished she could just eat a whole gallon of ice cream or something, but the replicators couldn't be used for such frivolities. Oh well; she'd just have to go to Sandrines after her shift was over, or maybe get together with Al again and see what he was doing, yeah there was definitely a plan.

* * *

As the ship shook a second time I awoke in annoyance; I hated late night duty shifts, I was exhausted and annoyed. _Couldn't I get a little more sleep; that's all I asked, honestly these mattersare seriously wrecking havoc with my sleeping cycle.  
_Glancing out the window; view port, whatever, all I could see was fluidic space. I sighed; looks like another double duty shift for the crew, I had my own task to perform. _What fun; I sure hope B'Elanna could use me._

* * *

"His link is stable, but it won't be for long; you must hurry." The Doctor called out as we worked; _talk about your crash course in Borg technology._

"Just a few more seconds." B'Elanna returned pulling out one of the chips, _or were they isolinear rods?_ Running her device over it she briefly eyed my own progress; I returned one and grabbed another setting to work on it, _how'd I get stuck with this delicate work?  
_Chakotay was doing his best to distract Seven; with two of us working it was going slightly faster then with just one. "Almost there Chakotay; you've got to keep her distracted if we're gonna make this work." She called out shooting a brief encouraging glance in my general direction; once more checking up on my progress, I grinned at a sudden stray thought.

"If he's the scorpion I suppose that makes me Scorponok." I quipped, feeling the pressure of this task; B'Elanna was asking a lot of this less then three year cadet level engineer. But she trusted me for some strange reason; ignoring my surroundings I pressed diligently onwards.

"He's losing the link." The Doctor exclaimed; I slid my last chip back into place as B'Elanna finished her task.

"Initiating power surge; now." She alerted backing away from the console; she shot me a confident smile as the console overloaded Seven of Nine's link to the collective, as the Doctor reported to the Captain.

"You did a good job Ensign." B'Elanna stated patting my shoulder.

"Thanks, but in the future; I think I'd like to avoid the high pressure jobs." I shot back with a chuckle; she smiled and turned back to the Borg equipment, which was really giving me the creeps. Climbing steadily to my feet I took my leave; perhaps now I could get some sleep, I felt utterly exhausted.

* * *

Within the Borg Unimatrix complex the Queen was studying a small readout of the scan Seven of Nine had performed on the human male; she had been checking it over numerous times making absolutely certain that the readings were perfect, even if it did seem like she was wasting her time. She had to be completely positive if she was going to waste the resources needed to finally initiate this test; quite to her satisfaction everything was in perfect order.

"He has the signature." She remarked with a sultry though dark smile. "Monitor Voyager as closely as you can and as soon as he leaves the safety of the ship, bring him to me." She ordered the countless millions of drones she was constantly overseeing; she brought up a regular image of the human and regarded it with sudden though twisted affection. "You and I shall usher in a new era for the Collective." She stated in a hushed tone keeping these thoughts private from the drones as was her prerogative; it was rare however that they did not know everything about her, but this one time she felt like not sharing with her children. Q watched all of this with a small smile; it was only a matter of time now, and then Alain Desrochers of Earth Prime, Chosen Warrior of God would become more then capable of fulfilling his destiny. Of course she probably hadn't intended him to change in quite this manner when sending him here, but after all; while he was here it was all up to him how his training progressed. Yes very soon now…

**To Be Continued...**

**The next story should prove most intriguing; if I actually post it, please Read & Review I'm certain you'll enjoy where this is going next, if you're wondering why we seemed to jump around a lot and didn't actually accomplish much in this chapter... Well let's just say we're setting up Al here for a very big fall. Hopefully you'll be able to join us all next time in the gripping continuation of Alain Desrochers' adventures aboard the Starship Voyager, in the story titled simply and aptly enough...  
**

**Star Trek Voyager;  
Assimilation; Enemy At the Gates**


	10. Chapter 10 Compehensive Timeline

**Chrysalis Timeline**

**Earth 929 Year 1992 April 13TH;** Alain Desrochers dates Jennifer McMahon for the first time, Unicron secretly employs an agent of Cobra-La to leave the book detailing Shadow Magic in Jennifers' school locker setting events in motion to ensure the arrival of Earth Primes' Alain Desrochers in the year 2003. _Source: Unwritten Talia & Darkholme Issue Number 1._

**Earth 929 Year 1994 May 27TH; **Jerrica Benton, the Holograms, their Associates, The Misfits and their Associates are mistakenly removed from Earth 929 by Saturnyne the Omniversal Majestrix due to outside interference from Merlyn. Roma chooses to use them for their mission to Earth 1302 in place of the Earth 656 counterparts intended to be used thus granting the assembled cast knowledge of the Omniverse for their future friendships surrounding a young man they currently have no knowledge on.  
Roughly five months later possibly; Unicron ensures that Kang the Conqueror will mistakenly apprehend all those living in Starlight Mansion thus ensuring that the Starlight Girls will also be aware of the Omniverse, the reason for this is still uncertain, but Primus has speculated that the Dark God wished to manipulate Alain's future ties with the Starlight Girls to unspecific ends. _Source Flashback: Crisis on Earth 929 Final Chaos and Unwritten Prelude to Crisis: Kang & The Starlight Girls._

**Earth Prime Year 1995 September 6TH; **Reanne McMahon previous Chosen of God loses the full power of her bloodline and begins to pay great attention to her daughters' boyfriends seeking the next Chosen. _Source: Off-Screen Event Never Written._

**Earth 929 Year 1997 August 10TH; **Jennifer and Alain finally become Talia and Darkholme beginning the process of harvesting Chaos energies in small amounts so as not to be noticed by Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange, several classmates of the duo most notably Christine Delisle, Candace Berard, Pamela Noel and Nicole Desroches (No relation) disappear. _Source: Unwritten Talia & Darkholme Issue Number 2._

**Starlight Citadel Timeline Uncertain; **Roma at last discerns the presence of total Chaos brewing on Earth 929 and sends Spider-Girl of Earth 107 to ferret out the source of the growing Chaotic forces threatening to destabilize the Omniversal balance. _Source: Unwritten Talia & Darkholme Issue Number 2 and 3._

**Earth Prime Year 2000 June 20TH; **Alain Desrochers Graduates High School and is faced with a lonely future as he knows nothing of what is expected of him, Reanne begins to despair as the Demons collect more souls to break the Gates of Hell open wide. _Source: Off-Screen Event Never Written._

**Earth 929 Year 2002 July 4TH; **Spider-Girl is enslaved by Shadow King under orders of Darkholme, Wheeljack begins plans to build the Infinity Engine, unseen by all Unicron is pleased at the progress of his pawns. Talia briefly faces the Ghost Rider revealing her presence and her plans indirectly to Mephistopheles, Blade the Vampire Hunter encounters Darkholme during a raid on a nest, and a Pocket Dimension is accidentally destroyed resulting in the unleashing of the Shadow Warg from their long ago banishment, Talia begins to tame them as pets. _Source: Unwritten Talia & Darkholme Issue Number 4 and 5 and 6._

**Earth Prime Year 2003 September 13TH Give or Take; **Alain telephones Jennifer; God ensures the call will be disappointing; the Omniverse becomes common knowledge to Alain Albert-Joseph Desrochers. _Source: Xena Warrior Princess; Of Gods and Women, Part One._

**Starlight Citadel Timeline Uncertain; **Roma enlists the aid of Arachnia AKA Gwen Stacy from Earth 3062; the choice of heroes reflecting ties to Spider-Man is due to manipulations in the Starlight Citadels' systems by Merlyn, Roma's father. Reasons unknown. _Source: Unwritten Talia & Darkholme Issue 6 Epilogue._

**Earth Designation Unrevealed Timeline Unspecified; **Alain Desrochers encounters Xena forcibly, God causes amnesia to ensure her champion shall take his training seriously, Unicron begins actively observing events from afar as his manipulations begin to take hold of the human.  
Taking the name Alumni; Alain journeys with the Warrior Princess and the Battling Bard and begins learning the proper use of the sword, he begins to bulk up and tone his body eliminating the fat. _Source: Xena Warrior Princess; Of Gods and Women, Part One._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 January 3RD; **Arachnia is captured by Talia and Darkholme becoming a sexual plaything for the duo replacing the most likely deceased former missing classmates; Wheeljack perfects the Infinity Engine and begins testing, Time Travelers from a future date and time inadvertently arrive in undocumented encounter between the Fantastic Four and a team claiming to be Salvation, they are led by a woman of unspecified origins and trick Johnny Storm Alias The Human Torch into returning with them to the future. _Source: Unwritten Salvation Issue Numbers Unknown; The Human Torch Saga and Talia & Darkholme Issue Number 7._

**Abbreviation Xena's Earth Timeline Still Unspecified; **Ares and Hera take a vested interest in Alumni; Ares uses a special poison to make communication possible, due to fragmented memories Alumni continues to train uncertain of his origins, but needing the skills to survive Hera convinces Hercules that Alumni is a dangerous threat; other players also become involved as the Heroes are gathered to protect the young man and facilitate his training all engineered by Zeus of course. _Source: Xena Warrior Princess; Of Gods and Women, Part One._

**Coruscant 177 Roughly 15 000 Years before the Foundation of the First Galactic Republic; **Jedi Knight Sarill Contrelle journeying to the planet Mustafar as part of her Jedi Trials is reborn upon ascending to the rank of Jedi Master, an unknown female party giving the name Quinlee is responsible for her newfound immortality, the Force reveals all to Master Sarill. _Source: Unwritten Star Wars Tales of the Jedi Order Story._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 February 23RD; **Techrat is approached by Predacon warrior Waspinator in disguise; Darkholme begins capturing his villainous pawns in preparation of the big push, Mephistopheles appears to the current Ghost Rider warning of dire portent and enlists his services to claim the Eye of Agamotto, the attempt fails though it does force Stephen Strange off of Earth 929 for the remainder of the year leaving a doppelganger under the control of Mephistopheles in his place. _Source: Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929 Ghost Rider Prelude to Crisis and Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929 Chronicles of Waspinator the Twenty-First Century._

**Xena's Earth Timeline Still Unspecified; **Alumni spends time in Athens undergoing intense physical training; Autolycus gets him in trouble with a tribe of Centaurs, but Xena manages to get him out. Unicron is well pleased at the progress of Alumni; fully aware what is to come he begins preparations to start the human on his path to the second unseen Destiny linking Alain to Cybertron forevermore, Past, Present and Future. _Source: Unwritten Tales of Suspense Issue Number 0 Alumni & Autolycus Vs. The Centaurs._

**Coruscant 177 18 Years before Star Wars The Phantom Menace; **Master Contrelle emerges from the planet Mustafar and engages battle with a Sith Lord by the name of Darth Sidious on the planet of Naboo, her attempt to prevent the fall of the Jedi Order fails, she flees into hiding and awaits the time of the Clone Wars vanishing seemingly from existence on the planet Dagobah. _Source: Unwritten Tales of Suspense Issue Number 1 Jedi Vs. Sith._

**Xena's Earth Timeline Still Unspecified; **Alumni journeys with Xena and experiences numerous adventures alongside his two mentors; during the Hind incident Alumni and Velasca are both kidnapped by Tarantulas acting under orders from Unicron, Unicron implants the spark that will become Tarantulas 929 within the flesh body of Alumni, forcibly usurping the young mans' true destiny and sub-planting it with that of a more favorable and necessary fate. _Source: Xena Warrior Princess; Of Gods and Women, Part Two and Prologue to Twisted._

**Faerûn 09 Timeline Uncertain; **Alumni, Velasca and a misplaced Kender spirit by the name of Tasslehoff Burrfoot fail in their quest to lay claim to the Dark Matrix from Cybertron 118 from the hands of the Drow of Menzoberranzan. Alumni's altered personality is forgotten and he is returned to Xena's Earth dismissing his stray memories as a trick of the Gods; within the spark of Tarantulas 929 begins to plot recapturing the flesh form of Alumni to continue his service to a being he has forgotten, obviously Unicron. _Source: Twisted._

**Earth Prime Hell Dimension; **Lucifer begins to prepare the power to breach Hells' Gates and conquer humanity along with the Earth; Time on Earth is no longer in motion however Time in Hell continues to beat faster towards the fated release of all Demonkin, The Secretary chooses to leave these scenes of darkness unseen to those regarding the chronicled history of Alain Albert-Joseph Desrochers of Earth Prime. _Source: Off-Screen Event Never Written._

**Xena's Earth Timeline Still Unspecified; **Alumni travels with Xena further the Ambrosia stolen from Callisto still hidden; he encounters Diana the Pagan Goddess and faces a tribe of Uruk-Hai; led by Damocles, the origins of the Uruk are unknown, Alain becomes Justice for the first time. Suffering a mortal wound he ingests the Ambrosia; the cultivating Spark of Tarantulas 929 uses this chance to resume control of the body assuming Godhood and proclaiming himself God of Chaos, due to fragmented memories Alumni does not recall anything of his mission to Faerûn. Instead he proceeds to wipe out whole villages of innocent souls while Xena, Gabrielle, Iolaus, Hercules and Joxer meet Toley one of Gods special guides; believing Alain's soul to have fragmented into two separate souls due to his amnesia and the fact that Unicron has hidden his machinations thoroughly from the eyes of God and Primus Toley sends his friends into his astral plane to save Alumni/Alain from death.  
In the end Tarantulas 929 is forcibly rejected from Alain's body taking on briefly a corporeal flesh form that is swiftly terminated by Toley's mate; thus Alain is saved and begins to learn more about his First Destiny. _Source: Xena Warrior Princess; Of Gods and Women, Part Two and Xena Warrior Princess & Hercules The Legendary Journeys; God of Chaos._

**Earth 929 Timeframe Unclear; **Unicron reclaims the spark that was Alumni who still has no recollection of the events surrounding its' origins; in fact it still believes itself to be a mortal soul and possesses a human appearance. Agreeing to Unicrons' false assurances Alumni the Spark is reformatted completely and finally turned into the Cybertronian Life Form destined to be; Tarantulas 929, though Tarantulas's memories have been altered so that all vestiges of his past life as a human are erased he completely understands that he has Unique Origins from those of Cybertronian Descent. _Source: Xena Warrior Princess & Hercules The Legendary Journeys; God of Chaos Epilogue._

**Earth Alpha Quadrant 18 Stardate Possibly 49504.3; **Having completed his training on Xena's Earth Alain is sent to the 24TH century and Q; first he must understand the nuances of the technology and survive the harsh wilds of the Delta Quadrant aboard the Starship Voyager, friendships are forged with Megan and Jenny Delaney and Ensign Samantha Wildman. _Source: Star Trek Voyager; Learning Curve; A New Frontier._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 March 15TH; **Darkholme and Talia continue unseen manipulations; Wheeljack and Optimus Prime place the Infinity Engine under SHIELD protection in secret and use deception and subterfuge to prevent the Decepticons from initially discovering the engines' absence, Cobra forces resurrect Serpentor from his death-like stasis and events begin to interconnect due to the presence of the Chaos Bringer. The Power Infinity Gem becomes the property of Reed Richards for a brief time, with it he discovers the Autobots' Infinity Engine has ties to the Infinity Gems though neither seems logically possible considering the origins of the Gems and Engine. _Source: The Transformers Issue Number 85 To Harness Infinity and Crisis on Earth 929 Reed Richards; Prelude to War._

**Earth Alpha Quadrant 18 Stardate 50384.2; **Alain meets Q for the first time; he begins to find his place on Voyager, Q takes on a new identity as Hunis the Trickster and creates the belief in the Draconian race that Al is Sithicus the Destroyer. The Borg become aware of Al's presence on Voyager during the Species 8472 incident and begin preparations for assimilation. _Source: Star Trek Voyager; Learning Curve; A New Frontier and Possibly Star Trek Voyager; Assimilation; Enemy at the Gates._

**Coruscant 177 Approximately 13-15 Years After Events of A New Hope; **Sensing the arrival of Alain is imminent Master Contrelle leaves Mustafar and Discovers Callista on the planet Naboo where she battled Sidious all those long years ago, she begins to re-open the woman fully in the Force. _Source: Unwritten Tales of Suspense Issue 2 Tales of the Jedi._

**Earth Alpha Quadrant 18 Stardate Approximately 51268.4; **The Borg capture Alain and forcibly assimilate him, the process goes awry through unseen developments; some such as Alain himself believe that Q influenced the Assimilation process and as usual the Omnipotent One decides not to correct that assumption taking perverse pleasure in the blame. In truth; due to the fact that the Spider Drone Tarantulas forcibly inserted into Alain back during the whole Twisted affair the Nanoprobes themselves become conflicted as two separate and alien sets of programming intersect and combine on a sub-molecular level re-writing the young human as Unicron intended into a Technorganic Life Form of unique abilities though still possessing the characteristics of the Borg and not the Cybertronians.  
After escaping Alain and the Voyager crew must come to grips with what has happened to him; life becomes further complicated when the Draconians arrive forcing Al to act and tap once again into the powers of Justice reawakening his memories of said power.  
**Stardate 52081.2; **Q frees Omnibus, Callopias and Serenity from incarceration; his Padawan will soon encounter a real Demon and begin to put the pieces of the puzzle that is his life together. _Source: Star Trek Voyager; Assimilation; Enemy at the Gates._ **Author's Notes: So as not to confuse you I will pause here to explain further the entire Assimilation Process I have recently re-created and re-envisioned to further draw ties between Alain and Cybertron. As you have already read Alain as Alumni encountered the Tarantulas of a different reality in Twisted and in order for Alumni to control Velasca this Tarantulas placed a Spider Drone within both of them. At the end of said story Velasca puked up the Spider Drone in a liquid state as she was forcibly bound to the Kender Tasslehoff Burrfoot, but the fate of Alain's Spider Drone was never revealed… This got the Wheels in my head to turning; at one point I had decided that Q really had mucked around with the Assimilation creating the other powers and as you can see whenever we bring that up in the main body of work Q and even his son q constantly play up this fact though in truth Q being a well known master of lies never actually did anything except to awaken the latent Mutant Gene in Alain a dormant Gene that all Earth Prime residents possess unknowingly.  
****The other power, powers I should say; originate from the Assimilation of the Spider Drone; Alain's ability to manipulate and created hard light holograms for brief moments in time is a remnant of the Spider Drones' own onboard holographic communications system, the ability to harness Gravity and to a lesser though extremely finite extent the Magnetic Spectrum is a remnant of the Spider Drones' repulsor field generator, which allows certain advanced Spider Drones the ability to levitate and fly defying gravity as it were, as well as the Spider Drone's magnetic grapplers, which Tarantulas has used in the past and is my interpretation of the little claw-like appendages sometimes seen in the Beast Wars cartoon, I mean they can pick up the pieces of Tarantulas when he gets' blown to smithereens, but some of those pieces looked a little awkward and even impossible to grasp, so I figured the claws must have added magnetic grapplers to facilitate picking up awkward, larger or even smaller pieces. This also explains why Alain's and Amy's Nanoprobes resemble eight-legged arachnids and possess a sort of semi-consciousness of their own at times; since the Spider Drones are Tarantulas' version of Smart Tools or AI units, which assist him in his laboratory experiments and the like it would make sense that at times they would assume control of certain bodily functions for unspecified purposes caused perhaps by mutated or aberrant behavioral programming as a result of the assimilation. The reason why I explain this all to you here dear reader is to facilitate the explanation and also I have no intention of revealing this truth to the characters in the story in any way shape or form; it's the Author's decision after all, so my original intentions now have an underlining perhaps sinister origin concerning the abilities of Technorganic Borg and also ties Alain to Cybertron just that little bit more… Now back to the matter at hand.**

**Earth 929 Year 2003 May 27TH; **Darkholme celebrates his twenty-first birthday and enjoys the fruits of his labors, namely Jennifer and Gwen; Cobra sets in motion project B.A.T Upgrade and sets their sights on acquiring the SHIELD Helicarrier. On Cybertron the war escalates as both Autobot and Decepticon begin deep space exploration for both Energon sources to replenish depleted supplies and lost colonies hoping to bolster their ranks with Cybertronians who had grown tired with the war and left, but are now desperately needed. Ultra Magnus makes contact with the Junkions of planet Junk and discovers faint traces of Cybertronian signatures from distant planet Nebulos; the Silver Surfer returns to being Galactus' Herald when Nova (**Frankie Raye**) is incarcerated on the Shi'ar home world for aiding Thanos in slaughtering eighty billion Kree survivors.  
Unicron begins preparations for the creation of Cyclonus and Scourge; it is also theorized that at this time the Universe Conflict of Cybertron 1300 was first conceived and possibly executed. Johnny Storm; missing for Five months in the Future, or a possible Future Timeline is at last returned by a mysterious young teenager with feline inspired characteristics, he says nothing of what he saw or did or even why he was gone so long. _Source: Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929 Cobra; Prelude to Crisis and The Transformers Issue Number 89-90 Plight of the Junkions and The Silver Surfer Issues Numbered Undecided; Heralds of Galactus and Crisis on Earth 929 Johnny Storm; Prelude to Crisis._

**Earth Alpha Quadrant 18 Stardate 52143.6; **Alain discovers both Serenity and Callopias roughly around this time, Serenity the Goddess attempts to seduce him, Callopias the Demon grows eager to kill him and events rapidly spiral out of control including an incident on the Holodeck until roughly Stardate 53049.2 when Al slays Callopias in combat and begins a torrid affair with Serenity. _Source: Star Trek Voyager; Forbidden Fruit._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 June 10TH; **Chaos has clouded Earth 929 from Roma's sight almost completely; aware she requires a new champion to prevent its' destruction she begins scouring the Omniverse for the perfect hero, preferably a Counterpart to Alain Desrochers 929. Meanwhile Talia at last is fully eclipsed by Unicrons' influence as he takes a personal hand in the events he is manipulating and Megatron finally deduces that Prime has hidden the Infinity Engine amongst the humans of SHIELD. In the small kingdom of Wakanda home to Africa's premier super hero the Black Panther Waspinator, the Predacon from a future time joins forces with T-Challa, Ghost Rider and a repentant Juggernaut to prevent T-Challa's enemies from unearthing remains of the Maximal Transwarp Exploration Craft Axalon and using them against the African heroes kingdom; time seems almost to stand still as though awaiting the coming of Alain Prime. _Source: Unwritten The Transformers Issues Numbered 92-94 (Possibly) Infinity is a Long Time Coming and Chronicles of Waspinator; Waspinator & The Secret Defenders._

**Earth Alpha Quadrant 18 Stardate Unknown; **After several months possibly a year of recuperation following the battle with Callopias, Alain Desrochers meets Amy and winds up adopting her via assimilation to save her life; Amy Chelerise Desrochers changes Al's entire outlook on life. Revealing his secretly crafted Holo-Cons; sentient holographic Decepticons, Al and Voyager repel attacks by the Borg and experience a great many adventures.

**Stardate Approximately 54274.7; **Al is visited by Warren Meers of Earth Hellmouth 400 reminding him that the events of Shattered is rapidly approaching; Al takes Amy to Eternia and is in turn adopted by her family, it is believed by Historians of Al and those around him that Serenity was impregnated close to this Stardate as well. Once returned to Voyager events continue on until fated Stardate 549703.4 when Admiral Janeway of one possible future arrives and leads her younger self into the destined event resulting in Voyager at last coming home to the Alpha Quadrant. Transporting over to the Enterprise Alain gets' his house in order and faces Omnibus at last; the Demon Overlord almost kills him, but he succeeds in destroying the Demons' physical form. _Source: Star Trek Voyager; War Against the Collective and Star Trek The Next Generation; Home and Heartache._

**Starlight Citadel Time Unspecified; **Roma recruits Alain to aid in ending the Crisis on Earth 929; none of the players are ever told how long this Chaotic anomaly has been growing, Al devastated at being torn away from Amy agrees only after Roma promises to reunite them. _Source: Crisis on Earth 929; Of Spiders and Mutants._

**Omniversal Passageway Unknown Moment in Time; **Unicron prevents Omnibus' spiritual essence from following Al to enact revenge, the non-corporeal Demon Overlord begins his search for a realm capable of restoring his physical form and seems to be almost forgotten by the players involved. _Source: Star Trek The Next Generation; Home and Heartache Epilogue._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 June 23RD possibly July 5TH; **Al arrives on Earth 929 in Central Park Early Morning; he encounters Spider-Man in brief after tangling with Electro, and then is inadvertently assaulted by Professor Charles Xavier founder of the X-Men mistaken for Magneto. Under the assumed name Allan Pendragon Rutherford our intrepid hero begins his mission with the X-Men; a guest in their mansion, he is targeted by the Brotherhood under Darkholmes' control, rescues Spider-Girl by killing Shadow King, meets with Spider-Man again to help Spider-Girl, briefly encounters Lawyer Matt Murdoch and is stopped by the Brotherhood a second time along with Curt Connors AKA The Lizard before he can meet Doctor Strange. All on Earth 929 remain unaware that the current Doctor Strange is a facsimile and the real Stephen Strange is currently trapped in the Dark Dimension battling minions of Dormammu. _Source: Crisis on Earth 929 Of Spiders' and Mutants and Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929 Doctor Strange Title Undecided._

**Coruscant 177 25-30 Years After A New Hope; **Master Contrelle and Callista rescue Lusa from a Vornskyr attack as the Yuuzhan Vong invasion grows into a truly epic development, Chewbacca and Anakin Solo lose their lives during the mounting war. _Source: Star Wars The New Jedi Order series of Novels/E-Novels and Tales of Suspense Issue Number 3 Vornskyr Attack._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 Exact Date Undetermined; **Alain is targeted by the Red Skull and an army of B.A.Ts' stolen from Cobra under the influence of Darkholme; the X-Men, Avengers and others put a stop to the attack on Manhattan and Westchester, Al kills the Red Skull be beheading him with his Lightsaber. Invited to an evening affair by Tony Stark Al and Rogue begin to slowly discover their mutual attraction for one another is more then just hormones, Wilson Fisk, Norman Osborn and Peter Parker are notable characters of Earth 929 also present at the unveiling.  
Venom and Carnage both attack due to Darkholme once again influencing events; Al, Spider-Man and Iron-Man fend them off, days later a team of X-Men, Spider-Man and Spider-Girl face them on the Brooklyn Bridge. Venom flees after Cletus Kasady is killed and the Carnage symbiote captured, Cobra owes Al a debt due to events surrounding Red Skull; Al enlists their aid at this point in time in finding answers to this entire mess.  
Eric Raymond sells out Gabor Oil to the Decepticons as Misfits' Music closes due to Bankruptcy; Al leaves New York and winds up in Los Angeles at Starlight Mansion, Jerrica and the others take him in, during his stay he meets Ricochet, Vixen and Synergy three Maximals from the Axalon as it turns out. Kills Spectro, Spyglass and Viewfinder with help from Cyclops and Jean, begins actively interacting with the Autobots, thwarts a kidnapping attempt, brokers deals with Cobra, the Autobots and Q, visits with Amy, helps young Nancy Cates deal with her mutation and takes the next step in his relationship with Rogue.  
Following major events surrounding Cobra, GIJoe the Transformers and their God Primus the Crisis of Earth 929 begins to reach the boiling point; Darkholme is ousted after pitting the Brotherhood against the Sinister Six; meanwhile Unicron and Tarantulas take the souls of the humans Cletus Kasady, Serpentor and the Red Skull AKA Johann Schmidt and once purging all traces of their past lives has been accomplished, Unicron uses said souls all of whom were directly or indirectly killed in their mortal life by Al to reformat and create the sparks of the Predacons Cicadacon, Seaclamp and Ramhorn; destined to become the Tripredacus Council and a future thorn in Rutherfords' side. _Source: Crisis on Earth 929: Avengers' Assemble and Crisis on Earth 929: Rampage in NYC and Crisis on Earth 929: Sea of Turmoil and Crisis on Earth 929: Terror Approaches and Crisis on Earth 929: More Than Meets the Eye._

**Earth X-1007 Circa 1942; **Warren Meers; having been forgotten by all journeys to this point in time of Earth X-1007 after engineering the deaths of numerous heroes including Superman and Batman, his goal is to enslave an army of heroines to conquer the Omniverse, but in truth Q is manipulating him to create a future team of Super Villains to face off against Alain and a future team of Super Heroes the young man will lead in service of Roma called Salvation, Warren's first target for slave training is Wonder Woman at a time when she is young and inexperienced… Harbinger; a new Demonic threat is also born due to Warren's incompetence and the beginnings of a truly dangerous team of adversaries is set in motion. _Source: Untitled Primarily Adult Story featuring Wonder Woman and Warren AKA Zeus._

**Earth 929 Year 2003 Month of August leading possibly into September; **Alain faces a plethora of events and villains as the Final Chaos draws nigh, The Sinister Six, Cobra, Darkholme, the Decepticons, the Green Goblin and others become embroiled in the massive up-surgence of mounting Chaos until at last, after killing his Earth 929 counterpart and facing down a Decepticon threat of spectacular origins Al engages in battle with Talia… Many casualties occur, but in the end Chaos is averted and the Infinity Engine destroyed; forced to leave Rogue and Amy behind Al moves on to conclude his training and hopefully return to Earth Prime at last.  
Other events entangled within this time include a brief encounter between Spider-Man, Spider-Girl and the Green Goblin, a battle with the Decepticons involving the Dinobots, and the mystical confrontation between Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Dormammu, Mephistopheles and the Doctor Strange Doppelganger all within the Dark Dimension. The Fantastic Four are also believed to have been taken out of the game due to a development in the Negative Zone, but remains unconfirmed. _Source: Crisis on Earth 929: Final Chaos and Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929: Spider-Girl Laugh of the Goblin and Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929: Doctor Strange Untitled Tale and Unwritten Crisis on Earth 929: Coda._

**Coruscant 177 25-30 Years After A New Hope; **Al arrives on Mon Cal and briefly interacts with the Solos' and Skywalkers' before Master Contrelle, Callista and Lusa arrive to take him to Mustafar; whereupon he completes his training, masters Justice and… _Source: Star Wars The New Jedi Order: Perspective and Star Wars The New Jedi Order: Potential._

**Earth Prime Year 2003 September 13TH; **Alain Albert-Joseph Desrochers returns home and begins remodeling his bedroom; Master Contrelle has accompanied him and the Force is no longer a part of her as she begins a new life on Earth Prime, in Hell Lucifer feels his presence, Jen and Christine talk briefly on the phone and Reanne prays for divine intervention. Meanwhile The Secretary has a special meeting with two individuals; Kal-El of a different Earth-Prime and Dawn Summers of Earth Hellmouth 75, the purpose of this meeting with Dawn Summers is never revealed. Other parties also briefly show interest in young Alain of Earth-Prime among them The Doctor, Daniel Jackson of SG-1 and Mxyzptlx. _Source: Star Wars The New Jedi Order: Potential and Interlude._

**Earth Hellmouth 36 Timeframe Uncertain; **Omnibus's spiritual essence escapes the Omniverse passageways and begins to amass mystical energy to return; Alain is sent to aid the Slayer in stopping Omnibus once and for all, events must happen quickly for Earth Prime is soon to be in dire need of Alain its' Chosen Champion. _Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Meets Sithicus._

**Earth Prime Year 2003 September 14TH; **Jennifer converses with Christine her best friend because of the phone call to Alain; q bears witness to this moment and amuses himself with the thought of the two coming together at last. _Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Meets Sithicus Interlude._

**Earth X-1007 Circa 2005;** Warren targets his next victims Kara Zor-El Alias Supergirl and Kara Zor-L Alias Power Girl to continue enslaving his army. _Source: Unwritten/Untitled Primary Adult Oriented Story Featuring Warren._

**Earth Hellmouth 36 Timeline Uncertain; **With Omnibus now destroyed completely and no longer a threat; Alain is approached by Whistler in order to assist the Powers that Be in restoring the Balance destroyed by Omnibus' unwitting presence on this version of Buffy's world. In order to accomplish this task; Alain must resurrect Tara McClay using Federation technology and drugs proven to work on others in the past and also recruit the long absent Scooby Oz the Reluctant Werewolf as it were to aid him in the city of Tokyo, Japan. It is revealed by the Sensei of the Light Dojo that ancient spirits once walked the Earth long ago; these spirits not destined to return until after the Slayer managed to defeat the First Evil and seal Sunnydale's Hellmouth manage to escape thanks to Omnibus and set into motion the rise once again of the Elementals.  
Al must convince a young Chinese girl by the name of Mei Lin that she is the Chosen One; destined to lead a team of four young women against the forces of the Spirits themselves, with the aid of Oz and Tara he must find a way to rewrite what Fate truly has in store for all. _Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dark Alliances and Partially Buffy the Vampire Slayer Inherent Evil._

**Earth 929 Year 2004 April 28TH; **Amy Chelerise Rutherford holds a training session with Professor Charles Xavier in order to expand her telepathic skills. _Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dark Alliances Interlude._

**Limbo Timeline Uncertain: Possible Future Events Revealed; **The Dark God Unicron holds a brief conference with Mega Zarak discussing events not yet part of the official Timeline; Mega Zarak informs his Master that Nemesis Prime has managed to procure the Dark Matrix on Eternia thanks to the unwitting assistance of young Alain Desrochers. Unicron leaves to harness the powers of Chaos being unleashed during the Autobot/Decepticon Conflict on Cybertron 5089 in order to restore his Planetary Body while trapped in a smaller form; The Universe Conflict is mentioned in brief, the reasons for this upset in the Timeline are uncertain, but information regarding the events surrounding Alain on Eternia and dealing with Nemesis Prime are most definitely intended to be a Future event as of yet Unchronicled by The Secretary. It is possible Uatu the Watcher parted the veils of Time and Space in order to gain further understanding on the Chaos Bringers interest in the Young Man from Earth Prime. _Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Dark Alliances Interlude._

**More as Follows I trust this has helped straighten out every aspect of the Chrysalis story featuring Alain Desrochers; Anything that is Unwritten will take some time for me to get around to if I write them myself I may enlist the aid of fellow Fanfic Authors who know characters like Ghost Rider, The Silver Surer and all that way better then me.**


End file.
